June 2020 FINAL FANTASY XI Digest

[Akihiko_Matsui]

Greetings, everyone!
FFXI Producer Matsui here.

Alas, we’ll be delivering the FFXI Digest in text format once again.

This version update will mainly focus on aspects that were originally planned for the May version update that couldn’t be implemented due to some tasks being put on a halt.

As a countermeasure against RMT (real-money trading), we set a limit on the number of sparks of eminence and Unity accolades that can be exchanged each week.
While the STF (Special Task Force) have been tracking reported logs and strengthening their enforcement, we determined that it would be effective to also reduce some simple methods of earning gil. This countermeasure will affect regular players to some extent. However, in order to minimize effects on players, we opted to limit the number of points exchanged, rather than remove certain Records of Eminence objectives.

We don’t think this is a perfect solution and will consider adjustments if necessary, so we’d like to hear your opinions on this countermeasure.

Ambuscade will both feature returning enemies, Dullahan and Pteraketos.
We’ve added some new Dullahan-themed rewards, so please look forward to it!

I’d also like to briefly explain the reason for the adjustments made to alter egos.
Certain alter egos used Holy during Divine Emblem to gain enmity; however, after the adjustment to paladin that reduced the recast time of Divine Emblem, we noticed that these alter egos often ran out of MP. To address this, we’ve adjusted AAEV and Rughadjeen to use Flash during Divine Emblem instead. With August, however, we addressed this by improving his MP restoration methods, so he will continue to use Holy as before.

The development and operations team are gradually returning to their usual productivity, and we’re currently in process of preparing for the July version update.

We hope that you continue to enjoy FFXI!

[kusa]

weekly limit was set way too low hurting regular players, please increase it.

[Voidstorm]

Please raise the weekly limit
OR add a common method of obtaining crafting materials such as Cypress Logs, Cyan Coral, Azure Leaf, khoma thread, etc as drops from frequently repeatable events.
OR lower the price of items mentioned above drastically.
OR this is going to destroy the game economy.

Yes, we have had steady inflation for a long time now, but what was just done will cause catastrophic deflation to the point where the economy will shut down.

[Allreadyinuse]

make it so every time you do something the rmt would never do the cap raises, wave 3 clears or something. Odyssey? people might actually do it but maybe to easy for the rmt still.

[mewwgoat]

weekly limit was set way too low hurting regular players, please increase it.

Highly agreed, as a player who can only play a couple hours 4 nights a week, i now just get to hope that the couple of mars orbs give me anything of value or the gobbie box. this WAS the main source of income for many players who weren't already billionaires from exploits or time and gil sinked in for crafting shields. Even a regular casual can hit cap accolades in under a week if they get in during a good time for gain exp. this sure might hurt rmt's, but decimates everything else along with it. Just cause your dog get a splinter, you shouldn't put it down in fear of it getting worse.

[Indigla]

One idea would be to give us a KI that raises the Sparks and Accolades turn in cap obtained through Deeds so dedicated players can get the rewards instead of RMT with fresh accounts.

[Kyte]

We wanted to combat these activities in a way that would provide minimal pain to the playerbase, but in going over all the data we have, we believe that this is the best place to target to reign in this issue, as they were providing a very easy, stable, and repeatable source of gil. We hope that the majority of you will not suffer too much as a result of this limit.


sooooo what happened to this lol

The real answer to the problem was adding more gil sinks (something simple like Swarts on an NPC for 300k each would do the trick), monitoring RMT hotspots more carefully, and perhaps, as a last resort, removing the crystal RoE.

[Sirmarki]

this sure might hurt rmt's, but decimates everything else along with it. Just cause your dog get a splinter, you shouldn't put it down in fear of it getting worse.

Come on, there are many ways to making gil in this game. I barely play, have more than enough and never did the whole sparks thing.

[Kylos]

I'm all for this because it brings some power back to the crafters, along with making it so actual farming for things like currencies should be more lucrative.

However...

The problem here is that this measure should have been introduced from the beginning. This is a pretty extreme measure put on the real players
of this game. It doesn't affect me so much, but I know there are other players who relied on this to afford some of the more expensive items.

I would suggest some of the following measures to help alleviate some of the issues that will inevitably hurt the real players more than the RMT.

1) Lower the price of REM's Chapters. Not to a crazy low point of course, but maybe by half? Some returning players may struggle to find others to
do some of the earlier battlefields, and farming the sparks to accumulate chapters is a better method for them. Would you consider a
readjustment for those who struggle to farm these chapters in battlefields?

2) As was mentioned above, lower the price on some of the synthesis materials? Some of these upgrades are already pretty hefty for some,
and not being able to farm sparks anymore would mean these 1.1m items will be perceived as a much harsher penalty.

3) Seeing as we have Merit Weapon Skill cap key items behind the "Deeds" system, would you consider adding key items to increase
this cap? To my knowledge, most RMT accounts would not choose to take the time to do all of these tasks as it would be counter
productive, but real players of the game would surely enjoy "earning" the right to increase their sparks/accolade caps.

If that's not enough, perhaps make it so players also need to have Rhapsodies of Vana'diel completed as well, just to put a further
stamp of approval that this is more likely a real player and not a recently created account.

4) Unrelated, but please, please, please, please add more Mog Wardrobes as a QoL update and not as a "feature" to buy with
our own money. I'd love to be more versatile with my jobs, but due to the sheer lack of inventory space, it is impossible for me
to play anything different as I spend half of my time playing the inventory management mini-game. One extra wardrobe would be enough at this point.

Thank you.

[Sirmarki]

While this is update is focus on RMT, can you please look at:

Job point sellers - They breed like rabbits and are botting in most of the limited Apex camps.

The amount of unfairly obtained crafting shields in the game, giving people domination and power in the crafting markets to control prices. There are still bots running around for days/weeks/months/years on end collecting materials for people botting shields in areas such as Crawlers Nest and Palborough Mines.

[Sirmarki]

1) Lower the price of REM's Chapters. Not to a crazy low point of course, but maybe by half? Some returning players may struggle to find others to
do some of the earlier battlefields, and farming the sparks to accumulate chapters is a better method for them. Would you consider a
readjustment for those who struggle to farm these chapters in battlefields?

Well this seems to be a problem common with low population servers and new players. I can see your point about lowering the cost of the chapters as they would have no bearing on
RMT or gil. I would say, however, a lot of the fights are soloable given the selection of difficultly levels that can be chosen.

[Tile]

I use my Sparks for crafting, so I dont know how this will affect me yet. Some weeks I use more than the new cap other I use less.

A way to increase your cap for the week would be nice, maybe make it rotate each week.

[Kazaki]

This cap actually hurts regular players more than RMT by a big margin. RMT often have many characters botting for sparks, meaning they can have an unlimited amount of characters in theory. 1$ mules swapped in and out can easily cap all character slots on an account in one gain-exp event. The regular player can't do that. Additionally, you often see, at least, groups of 6 character-bots in Asura all the time, 24/7, every day of the week capping sparks.

Let's look at this logically. A regular player can now make roughly 1mil gil per week using 100,000 sparks so that means;

1 character = 1mil / week
6 characters = 6mil / week
1$ mules swapped in/out = ??mil / week

Once deflation has happened to the point it's balanced out, RMT will have more of an incentive to sell gil and the price of gil will actually go up! Making their stockpiles worth more! This change actually helps the RMT and encourages more of it.

I am disappointed that Square Enix has decided to crush the game economy and the regular player, rather than focus on banning the characters that are obvious bots that seem to have immunity. I could find, gather evidence, and get rid of the bots on Asura within a week if I worked for Square Enix. They have actively chosen to allow these RMT to run their gil-selling activities because it brings in more money per month from the additional subscriptions. The economy change will keep us all occupied for a few months while the economy changes, during this time nothing is happening to the bots and the RMT.

[Vold]

Sparks of Eminence and Unity Accolades now have a maximum weekly exchange limit of 100,000 each.
* This weekly limit will reset each Sunday at 8:00 a.m. (PDT) / 3:00 p.m. (GMT) / 4:00 p.m. (BST) Is this a troll? This has to be a troll on players. When is the 'lol jk it's actually daily limit' coming? Lol I'm super casual at using my sparks and accos and this change hurts me lololololol 100k for an entire week lol I just spent 95k sparks on skill books in well under a hour. Guess I don't have to worry about using my vouchers on sparks in a pinch anymore lol wow let's not nerf the npc buy prices like we normally do, let's put a whole 100k weekly limit on exchange. Let's not up that gain xp requirement to 10k or 50k, let's put a whole 100k WEEKLY limit on sparks excha-


Look I know I won't have any fans with my stance. I'm sorry some of you are resorting to making gil from roe and npcs. That's rough. I wish you could keep that option. But it is unnatural for a player to become wealthy off of vendors. That is what crafts and drops are supposed to be for. Would I have done it had I known? Oh hell yeah. Doesn't make it any less unnatural, and our economy has boomed with inflation as a result. SE can blame the rmt to save face but we all know why that inflation happened. Word spread on 'the trick' and for the last several months prices on stuff has skyrocketed 3 fold or more. I'm sure rmt had some impact. Players came back during the covids, didn't feel like working for anything and bought gil. I get it. It becomes a problem when you could make quite the fortune in a week's time if you were dedicated enough. Maybe SE even intended for this convert sparks to gil thing to happen. But as with all MMOs, humanity proves resourceful in it's pursuit of efficiency, and if it was intended so players could obtain gil easier these days, they have decided to put a stop to it.



I like the idea of the sparks cost for particular items to be lowered. They were obviously what they are as a result of SE knowing how easy it was to obtain sparks. That would solve problems like mine. But as far as gil makers goes, well, 100k is harsh. It is obvious to me it is 100k because SE realized no one bothered until gain XP hit three times a week to cover all time bases. I did the math. 1 mil per 100k sparks and 1 mil per acco. People reported like 30 mil per week. Roughly ten fill ups per gain XP. Alot more I'm guessing is possible. I have some experience in gain XP and sparks farming. I think we can afford to put the limit to 500k, or even a million. Cut it by two thirds potential. Cutting it down to 1 fill up from 20-30 fill ups is really harsh. At the very least create more gil sinks to handle that kind of gil entering the economy. Make a new MB. 10k per ball or 100k per. 5 digits instead of 6. 4 instead of 5. Half the winnings. Etc. There's gambling stuff in FFXI. up those rewards so people actually use them for a change. Whatever. Allow us to buy 20 silver vouchers instead of 5. We mostly die to mimics so whatever. It's not hard lol

[Sirmarki]

I'm going to assume that the unity limit spending does not apply to UNM battles?

EDIT: No, it doesn't (phew!).

Just another thing, and some feedback.

I don't think items under "Items" should count towards the cap, with the exception of Etched Memories. Personally speaking, I don't see a reason for caps on Chapters or a Capacity ring, unless the sparks cost be lowered on these items?

[Kazaki]

One way to actually fix it is to increase the price, in sparks, that an item costs over a certain amount of purchases and then it goes up infinitely over more and more purchases of that item - but only on items that you can sell. Chapters should be accessible to new players.

[Divaud]

I'm in favor of the cap as is.

It still allows players to make some gil for things like spells/food/etc

While this doesn't stop the ability of RMT to print gold, at the very least it slows it down considerably which is overall a good thing.

[Pipster]

Cap is fine - But please reduce the cost of rare/ex items so the cap doesn't effect regular players. i.e. chapters, skill up books, etc...

[Kalyoth]

Would it be possible to change the rewards table for the Special Gobbiedial keys? With the new restriction upon the purchase, unless you have done everything in the game, these keys have just become completely useless as a purchase item based upon the size of the rewards pool & the significant chance to obtain items of no use to the player or resalable/tradable to others.

Also - perhaps consider mechanic triggers that allow players to earn additional resets of the points through content such as Ambu, Dynamis Divergence etc - any content that you can't mostly just sit there afk thru & recharge bots with?

[bigbubbablu]

Is this really happening you do this this same month as a double accolade event...too funny !!!! Well thought out

[Sirmarki]

Is this really happening you do this this same month as a double accolade event...too funny !!!! Well thought out

It's perfectly thought out, as you don't get affected by using Accolades to fight Wanted battles.

So go and spam those UNM battles.....

[Lucor]

I think a part of the issue with the sparks/unity cap is that many players see no value in the items you can redeem points for outside of items they can sell for gil. For the most part, a lot of what you can exchange points for are only worthwhile to players who are levels 1-98, or just recently hit 99 on their first job.

The obvious first suggestion is to make all EX items (that can't be exchanged for bayld) not count towards the cap. These are items people get because they need it, not stuff to make gil off of.

Another idea would be to add items that are more worthwhile for advanced players added to the list of EX items (that don't count towards the weekly cap). For sparks, some examples would be Omen cards (10,000 sparks), Omen scales (99,999 sparks) and Maat's concoction (50,000 sparks)

For Unity points, I have 2 suggestions. Add a new item that is like a stewpot for trusts. Using it gives the party leader a food buff with stat benefits and major boosts to their trusts. Another idea is a Unity trust rental system. Let players use Unity points to rent other Unity trusts. This could cost 10,000 unity points per trust, which would require players to renew the rental weekly. Aside from being another means to spend unity points, this would help fix the issue where some unity groups are over populated.

Finally, the list of currencies you can exchange copper vouchers for is a bit useless to most players. If you added useful currencies like Ichor or Nyzul tokens, you would see a lot less people trading the vouchers in for sparks. (It would also help decrease the congestion of their content on some servers).

[Genomeffxi]

I like the new limit, please keep it.
I think making the EX items not count toward the limit makes sense.
The economy needs more sinks and less inflation.
There are plenty of ways to make money for real players that are more fun than just trying to buy and sell as many shields as possible in the gain Xp window, that was just so tedious and not fun, but it was too rewarding to pass up, but really not the best part of the game at all. Some players might complain at first but I think they will discover other parts of the game to make money from very quickly, money for items from NPCs is never a problem, it's mostly items from other players which are currently inflated due to both RMT and how easy it is to make money and therefore devalues money.

[WuonTFJ]

Would much rather see a reduction of the amount of gil earnable from RoE items. Make all RoE items non sellable, and add an option to convert up to ~50K Sparks a week directly to gil at a 1:10 ratio. Would remove the hassle of buying and selling the shields for regular players and leaving them able to buy whatever they want for non gil purposes. Would be a good idea to also make all non guild/repeatable quest RoE items (like Acheron Shield) rare so players following old guides don't burn all their sparks thinking they can sell them.

If you're working on fixing Alter Ego behavior, it would be nice if you could fix the caster's healing monsters with an absorbed element.

[Dieth]

" we set a limit on the number of sparks of eminence and Unity accolades that can be exchanged each week. "

As mentioned by other players this is going to hurt a lot of solo players. I would suggest a higher cap that is applied across all characters on a single account.

Right now all RMT are going to do is make additional characters on the account and when they cap one out and move on to the next.

Previously when we had this same issue (Abyssea / Chocobo Blinkers) you out right nerfed the price of blinkers making the exchange rate pretty terrible.

This is probably not a popular opinion but I would suggest making any of the equipment items that can be bought from sparks vendor and then sold to NPC to be sellable for 1 gil much like the starting character equipment is flagged.

This would hopefully encourage players to purchase things they can sell to other players (skill up books / mats needed to pop Gaes Fete / UNM Upgrades) and would generate money inside the player economy instead of literally printing it from an NPC and causing inflation.

Maybe look at adding other items to sparks/unm such as PBR's and other REMA upgrade items. (the really outdated 3 c vouchers -> 1 PBR is really terrible considering Gorpa Masorpa exists now).

[pieceofsoap]

This change to sparks is totally acceptable to me.
Yes, I get some gil from sparks and accolades, I had been dumping my points into Acheron Shields and Prize Powders like I assume everyone else.
I have other ways to make money, and dumping sparks/accolades is inconvenient.

Anything that makes the life of RMTs less comfortable is fine by me.

[Azraell]

Worse. Update. Ever.

[Cimyr]

Man just because the global economy is in shambles doesnt mean I want it simulated in FFXI too.

[Xilk]

Wow, 100k unity accolades per week REALLY hurts when farming unity NM's.
It should be at least double or triple that just to not kill Unity NM farming.

Especially since I want more unity pop items for my Odyssey farming.

this is really ridiculously too low.

[Lockhart]

Wow, 100k unity accolades per week REALLY hurts when farming unity NM's.
It should be at least double or triple that just to not kill Unity NM farming.

Especially since I want more unity pop items for my Odyssey farming.

this is really ridiculously too low.

There is no limit to how many accolades you can use on NM pops. Just exchanging.

[TooTallTaru]

Worse. Update. Ever.

For now...
Calling it a update is generous.

[Alhanelem]

I agree the limit is too low. Not crazy low, but as it is, even if you don't specially farm for certain RoE objectives, you're going to hit that limit just doing things you normally do in a week. It needs to be higher. I think this change was good intentioned, but it is causing problems because you didn't plan for this a lot sooner. It's really crappy to keep a status quo for years and then suddenly change it on people.

You mentioned you were considering removing certain ROE objectives. Instead of doing that, why not limit the number of times you can repeat them? Then the fastest gil generation method is reduced while players are still able to gain sparks etc. at the regular rate at other times.

See the problem is all that gil is already in circulation, and you can't just remove it. So the people who already have mules full of gil, they're already set, while the players who were just getting by are hurt by this.

The problem is more that there aren't many big gil sinks in the game anymore. Teleporting doesn't cost that much (heck, i remember paying white mages more to teleport to fewer places....) and dynamis doesn't have an ongoing cost, and neither does any of the other major content in the game.


---
Let me tell you a short story.


I was involved in the post-release community-based development of a game called Dungeon Defenders. (We basically had free range to make many changes to the game although they had to be approved by the community and verified by the original devs to not make the game explode). This was a third-person action game with tower defense elements. Among the gear available to players were pets, which there were a variety of and had unique effects. One of these was a "genie," and his special ability was to give you mana when you dealt damage. This mana is primarily used to buiild and upgrade towers. There was a bug with the genie, which went unfixed by the developers for a long time, which caused its ability to potentially activate multiple times per attack, generating a lot of mana and allowing players to complete their defense builds much faster than normal, somewhat trivializing certain aspects of the game at high levels.

When the development was handed over to the community, we discovered this bug, and we attempted to fix it- but the bug had been in the game for years unbeknownst to the players, and they rebelled when the fix was proposed. Bound by the community wishes, we were forced to leave the bug in. This is because the playerbase was used to it for so long that the bug essentially became a feature.

That is basically what has happened here in FFXI. The current popular way to make money has been around for a very long time and had some obvious flaws in it, but they went unaddressed for a long time. As a result, the playerbase became used to it. Now, years later, you decide you need to fix this.



Hopefully my story helps illustrate why people have a problem with this.

[Lockhart]

Maybe I am doing it wrong but it usually takes me around 3-4 hours to cap sparks (other then gain exp objective). 3-4 hours for 1m gil is super ineffective for me. During gain EXP in a group i finish 99.9k sparks and accolades every 20-30 minutes. During that one event I could make up to 6m/hr which is worth it. I do not think average players are willing to spend 3-4 hours to cap objectives during not these times.

The real problem was the bot's capping sparks and accolades every 3-4 hours (6-8 times a day), If you toss in gain EXP, I'd say they cap both in an hour or slightly less during ALL 3 events, which puts the bots up to 65 times per week. Assuming the BST running at flee speeds in cirdas caverns were the same RMT, there was 23 of them online at one time. Thats around 1,495 times a week for just the one in Cirdas, the other zones are packed too. Accolades usually cap in the same-ish time therefore ~3k exchanges of 1m gil.

That RMT is making 3 billion gil a week on these sparks and selling it to people that we are competing against for spots in linkshells, ambuscade spots, omen spots. Its hard to be upset at SE for placing this limit for me. I think there is a better way though.

I think the only things that should be included in this limit are equipment 1-99. The current limit should allow you to buy gear and equipment up to 99 for around 2-3 jobs a week, and then sell it for a profit of (1 million gil roughly). However, I dont think anything in items, skill increasing tomes, or trust should count against your limit. Sure, you can sell the tomes or memories on the auction house, but the market for these is not usually very high. The tomes you can sell to NPCs but at a 0.5:1 ratio instead of 10:1 (meaning they are 200 sparks and npc for ~105gil). I dont think RMT would find this profitable or worthwhile, and its definitely not 1.5 billion gil a week guaranteed.

As far as accolades: The only one that makes guaranteed gil is prize powder. Two options: its the only one you made NPC-able (I'm not sure why) so ether make it worth 10 gil (1-1 ratio) or make it non-npc sellable like the other items. Place no limit on anything else. Sure, RMT could purchase a bunch of "special material" which is not NPC able, and sell it on the auction house, but it will not sell that quickly which makes me think RMT will also find this not worthwhile, giving us the ability to exchange for them if we cannot find a group to do the content. Also, these items are useful to new players so if they do FLOOD the market with these items, I'm sure they will be incredibly cheap and useful to everyone doing Oddessy or upgrading equipment (IE new players).

Thoughts?

I could be way off base with my assessments. Even though this strategy by SE to combat this seems like a good idea to me, I would love to discussing things that could make this better for everyone.

EDIT: upon investigation, my suggestion for sparks is already what they did.
EDIT to EDIT: nevermind, it just doesnt show up on the main page. They do count against your 100k limit.

[isiolia]

We don’t think this is a perfect solution and will consider adjustments if necessary, so we’d like to hear your opinions on this countermeasure.


I think establishing a limit like this was far, far overdue. Even outside of RMT activity, it just introduced too much gil relative to gil sinks. Similar methods had been addressed in much less time in the past.
Good on the dev team for going ahead with what you likely knew would be a very unpopular decision.


That said, I do think there are some potential improvements to make.

As Lucor has already mentioned, a core problem with Sparks (in particular) is that the selection of items on offer is heavily geared around newer or returning players. Which is great! Cost of basic armor and weapons is basically a nonissue, and NPC'ing items (even with the cap) would provide sufficient income to buy food/consumables from the Curio Moogle, spell scrolls, and so on.
For players at 99 and above, however, appealing things to spend Sparks on drop to near nothing. About the only things there once someone has capped skills are REM tales and Etched memories, which cost too many Sparks to be appealing at this stage of the game. It makes the logical use NPC'ing items for gil, which has been an enduring design issue.

What I would suggest, similar to what Lucor said, is to expand on what players can purchase. Maybe use RoV progress to open up more categories to purchase from, and individual achievements to unlock specific items. Even aside from things like Omen scales/etc (which would be nice), put any crafted items needed for AF quests, Relics, reforges, Oboro weapons, etc in there. AH supply can be sporadic on small servers.
Having another source for REM currencies, Dyna D materials, and so on could be fine too. Again, only available to characters that have actually progressed to the content.

The general point being, try to make NPC'ing things for gil be a less appealing option, and you'll reduce gil creation even further. Unity materials already do something similar, Mog Garden as well.

I do think that non-sellables (like chapters) should be exempt from a cap.

Accolades, I'd say that the Special Materials cost should be lowered, or exempt. The NPC price doesn't make them worth selling like that, and the market for them is only so large.


It would, generally, be great to see Sparks be rethought into something better rather than simply nerfed.

[Zuidar]

Upgrading Unity equipment using Accolades should not really be subjected to the cap, and same for SP keys

[Pwnsalot]

I'd have to argue that Sparks play only a small role in RMT money generation. RMTs can farm 100s of millions of gil per day. Billions in some cases, especially when in-game exploits are leaked. Sparks generation, even if you're controlling 6 characters, is only a million gil per character once redeemed for Acheron Shields and I think this is balanced. It's a win-win, too, because more characters = more sparks = more gil but also more characters = more money for Square Enix = more content published by Square Enix = very happy playerbase.
On that note, I'd have to admit that the limit posed on Sparks generation does indeed seem fair and balanced and will likely not affect 99% of the playerbase. In fact, I'm often sitting at capped sparks and making gil doing other things instead of selling Acheron Shields because inventory crisis is a real thing.
Speaking of inventory crisis, I'd pay handsomely for a Wardrobe 5 and 6 :)
A N Y W A Y
You should also note that you do Gain Exp 3 times per week, and Gain Exp is basically capped sparks in 30 mins. So this limit imposed on Sparks generation is going to weaken the strain on the server during Gain Exp, because everyone won't spam it for 4 hours straight.
But remember, it's 3 times per week.
So even if we log in for 1 Gain Exp, and all we do that day is farm for 30 minutes to sell sparks, well, if we're online during the next Gain Exp that week, we just simply can't benefit from it anymore. And that's actually kinda lame. But, since the 3 Gain Exps are spaced out in 3 different time zones, it's unlikely that the average player will be playing during multiple Gain Exps, unless they're actually signing in just to farm Sparks, and believe me, I've been there. That's not a bad way to earn gil. Especially if you have multiple characters.
It does kinda seem like you're immune to this 100k sparks cap if you have enough characters to play. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

[Lockhart]

I'd have to argue that Sparks play only a small role in RMT money generation. RMTs can farm 100s of millions of gil per day. Billions in some cases, especially when in-game exploits are leaked. Sparks generation, even if you're controlling 6 characters, is only a million gil per character once redeemed for Acheron Shields and I think this is balanced. It's a win-win, too, because more characters = more sparks = more gil but also more characters = more money for Square Enix = more content published by Square Enix = very happy playerbase.
On that note, I'd have to admit that the limit posed on Sparks generation does indeed seem fair and balanced and will likely not affect 99% of the playerbase. In fact, I'm often sitting at capped sparks and making gil doing other things instead of selling Acheron Shields because inventory crisis is a real thing.
Speaking of inventory crisis, I'd pay handsomely for a Wardrobe 5 and 6 :)
A N Y W A Y
You should also note that you do Gain Exp 3 times per week, and Gain Exp is basically capped sparks in 30 mins. So this limit imposed on Sparks generation is going to weaken the strain on the server during Gain Exp, because everyone won't spam it for 4 hours straight.
But remember, it's 3 times per week.
So even if we log in for 1 Gain Exp, and all we do that day is farm for 30 minutes to sell sparks, well, if we're online during the next Gain Exp that week, we just simply can't benefit from it anymore. And that's actually kinda lame. But, since the 3 Gain Exps are spaced out in 3 different time zones, it's unlikely that the average player will be playing during multiple Gain Exps, unless they're actually signing in just to farm Sparks, and believe me, I've been there. That's not a bad way to earn gil. Especially if you have multiple characters.
It does kinda seem like you're immune to this 100k sparks cap if you have enough characters to play. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

Greeting Pwnsalot, I have seen you around the server and your youtube videos have helped me progress in the game. For that I want to extend my gratitude, thank you.
I wanted to request you expand on the statement you made "I'd have to argue that Sparks play only a small role in RMT money generation. RMTs can farm 100s of millions of gil per day. Billions in some cases, especially when in-game exploits are leaked."
While I understand about the in-game exploits, which were addressed, how are they making millions or billions without sparks/accolades now? The goal here is to stop RMT, or at least slow them down as much as possible. If your aware of another issue that should be address please bring it to the attention of the forum.

[Ilisidi]

Thank you for the update and the anniversary event.

I enjoy playing against my Mog Garden buddies very much. (Okay, not against Kuyin.)

[Romikemi]

Fourteen years I've been dealing with this infection and today prompts me to comment.

You know, if the STF was actually a thing, with eyes, and maybe a dozen lua scripts, you wouldn't need to do anything that affects the normal user base.

Normal (n): conforming to a norm, demonstrating a common pattern.

Seriously people, you write code for a living and you can't find the accounts that are showing questionable behavior? Heuristics have been a part of internet security for over a decade now. Just look at that notification on your phone "Hey Bob, did you really just buy three boats?"

No, instead you look at how many Acherons sell in an hour and your reaction is to prevent all people who express a wide range of behavior from benefitting from an ethical exercise of an action that best matches their skill in the game just because it seems to correlate to RMT.

Meanwhile, have you ever stood around in Dho Gates and maybe struck up a conversation or two, you know, just to see if anyone is awake? Certainly the clients are all AFK. Did you think people with capped gil need to work 12 hour days? I've filtered so many shouts that I come to ffxiah just to see how ridiculous it is without filters.

Yet, this, this, is an anti-RMT move? Do you seriously think this is the most productive way for RMTs to earn? Really? I mean, honestly, I don't know what you people think after turning A Realm Reborn into Dance Dance Revolution.

[Typral]

Why would they want to ban the RMT? That would be a huge net loss for them in sub costs. We are at the point they don't want to hurt the cash flow from this game or it could make them decide it isn't worth it anymore. The best thing they came up with was to slow RMT down and make them purchase more content IDs = more revenue. I think they stopped caring about the average user a long time ago because they figure they will stick around no matter what.

[Sirmarki]

https://i.imgur.com/SiKqm5t.jpg

[Alhanelem]

https://i.imgur.com/SiKqm5t.jpg
I'm more interested in what they do with the metric tons of prize powder.

[SylphThor]

On Asura the vast majority of Apex camps, as well as mobs in Escha Zi'tah are riddled with bots. It has come to the point that legitimate players cannot farm job points anymore because all of the apex camps are over populated with these RMT bots selling job points.

The problem in addressing the job point sellers by simply banning them doesn't seem to be a viable solution in the long run.

I would suggest a solution that involves player participation in order to receive job points so they can't get them if they're simply AFK.

In terms of bots in general it gets easier and easier as software evolves to reproduce "normal player" behavior so people can still AFK. In terms of dealing with job points sellers I believe the best target is the legitimate player base who pays for these services.

For example, the solution involving player participation should be designed such that participation can't be reliably reproduced by a bot. It can involve a certain action at /random based on the player's job and current battle they are in. It can also involve a /random check that wouldn't involve a players participation. I think there are many possibilities in this regard.

[Sirmarki]

On Asura the vast majority of Apex camps, as well as mobs in Escha Zi'tah are riddled with bots.

Very true, and growing in numbers almost daily. It doesn't help though when players are justifying them, and using their "services" on a regular basis.

There is literately nothing now that isn't being sold. Delve, Job Points, EXP, Clears, Escha zones are dominated by mercs. /yell on the busiest server is actually dead or near dead regarding people creating groups.

[Alhanelem]

On Asura the vast majority of Apex camps, as well as mobs in Escha Zi'tah are riddled with bots. It has come to the point that legitimate players cannot farm job points anymore because all of the apex camps are over populated with these RMT bots selling job points.

The problem in addressing the job point sellers by simply banning them doesn't seem to be a viable solution in the long run.

I would suggest a solution that involves player participation in order to receive job points so they can't get them if they're simply AFK.

In terms of bots in general it gets easier and easier as software evolves to reproduce "normal player" behavior so people can still AFK. In terms of dealing with job points sellers I believe the best target is the legitimate player base who pays for these services.

For example, the solution involving player participation should be designed such that participation can't be reliably reproduced by a bot. It can involve a certain action at /random based on the player's job and current battle they are in. It can also involve a /random check that wouldn't involve a players participation. I think there are many possibilities in this regard.
Feel free to come on over to shiva, I'll grind job points with you any time, with plenty of camp availability. <3

This would really be a lot less of a problem if the population were more evenly distributed, instead of the lion's share of the playerbase being on one server though.

[Zgaro]

Worst Update in any game i play. This only company in gaming history hurt playerbase more than help them. I have play ff 11 off and on for past 18 years. Economy will not be effected at by this update. I can not count number of multi boxers go uncheck in this game that use third party tools should be ban and which in turn flood market with items 2 where ban for this player i ask SE. I have cancel my sub cause this update. My money goes to company actually care about their playerbase. Btw shout out Asura players hiddenfist and glassslippery guild only players actually help me out in game. Best luck to u guys.

[Sirmarki]

Worst Update in any game i play. This only company in gaming history hurt playerbase more than help them. I have play ff 11 off and on for past 18 years. Economy will not be effected at by this update. I can not count number of multi boxers go uncheck in this game that use third party tools should be ban and which in turn flood market with items 2 where ban for this player i ask SE. I have cancel my sub cause this update. My money goes to company actually care about their playerbase. Btw shout out Asura players hiddenfist and glassslippery guild only players actually help me out in game. Best luck to u guys.

So your issue is equally regarding the update, as it is multiboxers (aka, for the most part Mercs)?

[Sirmarki]

Feel free to come on over to shiva, I'll grind job points with you any time, with plenty of camp availability. <3

Shiva is far too quiet. Need a server with some middle ground and a population of at least 1000, not 300.

[Alhanelem]

Shiva is far too quiet. Need a server with some middle ground and a population of at least 1000, not 300.
Concurrent users != total population. There's more than enough players to do anything you need to do if you know who to ask. That's the thing with the smaller communities, they help each other disproportionately more than larger ones.

[Nyarlko]

Please remove any and all EX tagged items from counting towards the cap. There is literally zero benefit to including any of them, it hurts legitimate players and does absolutely nothing to combat RMT activity. It is a straight up, painful nerf to legitimate players with zero benefit of any sort involved. This new cap especially hurts newer players/characters who may need to rely on "sparks gear" as their first ilvl equipment source and are likely struggle to find groups for HTBs to acquire Rem's chapters at a reasonable pace.

Personally, I'd also appreciate it if you could exempt UNM special materials as well. There isn't much profit to be made from them when comparing the cost:income ratio, and the ability to buy them is mostly useful for collecting pop items (which I provide to my linkshell at no cost to them) and using as upgrade materials. Any significant profit involved with their sale also involves dealing with the demand/delay of using the AH to sell rather than selling to NPCs, and every item requires actually playing the game and defeating each UNM at least once anyway, so it seems like a low-risk adjustment to exempt them from the purchase cap as well.

Other than my reasoning above to exclude UNM materials, anything else that can be sold to an NPC for gil should be counted towards these new caps, with all other purchasable items excluded, for both sparks and accolades. The current implementation is clearly overreaching.

[Sirmarki]

I'd also appreciate it if you could exempt UNM special materials as well..

I disagree really. People are selling stacks of some of them for 800K. Also, since they have been limited, a lot more people are doing UNM fights, as this encourages them to do so.

[Rwolf]

I'm in favor of the cap to spark/accolades despite the minor inconveniences, but I hope the developers and STF know they can't stop here. The crackdown needs to be harder on players who are using crafting exploits and item duplication.


Remove more of these accounts sitting on thousands of medals or who have started to try and massively trade them into popular shard/void items to hide them. I don't expect overnight to get them all but I don't see how it's possible for 7 stacks of 99 medals on AH not being a red flag or buying 6 of them in one day (Bismarck).


Look into these accounts selling suspicious amounts of Su5 weapons / +2 necks. Just on Bismarck I'll look at one person's AH history and it contains multiple crafts +2 necks being sold frequently. Instant ban? No. But these things should be suspicious enough to look into where they got them from and then ban all associated.


Farming items needs an overhaul: Gardening, mining, logging, harvesting, fishing, clamming, chocobo digging, enemy farm, etc. needs an overhaul on grinding materials. Make things fun, non-competitive for spots, and deterrent to players who automate bots to complete the tasks like what spark/accolade farming was.

[Sirmarki]

Farming items needs an overhaul[/B]: Gardening, mining, logging, harvesting, fishing, clamming, chocobo digging, enemy farm, etc. needs an overhaul on grinding materials. Make things fun, non-competitive for spots, and deterrent to players who automate bots to complete the tasks like what spark/accolade farming was.


Unfortunately fishing got crippled by RMT/bots. I can only really comment on that aspect of your post, as I've not really done much of the others.
To get the best fishing rod in the game is a lot of work, and there doesn't seem to be much reward at the end of it.
I mean it is good to fish and cook, that used to be a great combination, however with so many people seemingly botting shields, even the crafting market (as you mention) has been decimated by cheats.

[Rwolf]

Yeah, that sucks about fishing. I don't know what the answer is and I'm sure there will always be someone cheating/botting but the current situation sucks. There's so much as you said decimated by cheats. Directly through price/inventory manipulation on AH but also providing false metrics to the devs on how content needs to be adjusted.

Devs should also consider making a way to transfer your RP progress on NQ/+1 weapons/necks to give them more value. That detracts some players from feeling the need to go directly to +2 neck / Su5 weapon. The game needs some return to casual progression and encouragement to actively participate in the game.

[Nyarlko]

I disagree really. People are selling stacks of some of them for 800K. Also, since they have been limited, a lot more people are doing UNM fights, as this encourages them to do so.

There are only a handful that are worth much at all tbh, and trying to use them as a reliable source of income is a generally bad idea in my experience. (The only ones that are close to the max value that you are quoting are all pop items for GF NMs, and come from ilvl128+ fights.) At 10k accolades per, they are also a significantly worse point:gil conversion ratio than powders/shields/etc even in the best case scenario since the alternatives were 100% reliable and independent of the economy. They also do require defeating each UNM at least once to unlock their material for purchase, so there is a gameplay barrier involved (which can be bypassed by being carried, yes. But that goes for all content at this point other than Master Trials.)

I believe that there is very little inherent risk in excluding them in addition to EX items, and given how low demand on the AH is for any of them, I can only see the AH prices for all of them going down along with the current deflation trend, which will also discourage RMT from dealing with the low time:profit ratio.

[Flackooo]

Would it not be possible to implement some more Apex mobs, would love to see some in the old zones, such as;

Valkurm Dunes, Sea Serpent Grotto, Yuhtunga Jungle, Beaucedine Glacier.

I'm sure are parts of these map, no one ever goes to.

[Toren]

This has been a painful and ongoing battle for SE. It's difficult because since Gil is still very meaningful, and any methods to counter the RMT's will impact the player base in one way or another.

Although I will say that I've always preferred that about this game over FFXIV since Gil is almost cosmetic only there. While Gil can be used for a wide number of things here in FFXI.

I also have to agree with Flackoo though. More Apex camps or adjusting some zones in general would definitely help. Even using some of the other areas of like Al'Taeiu, they could also use some of the Abyssea zones as with some adjustments since they can already accommodate large numbers of players with multiple camps. There's a pretty large number of zones they can work with.

[Sirmarki]

There are only a handful that are worth much at all tbh, and trying to use them as a reliable source of income is a generally bad idea in my experience. (The only ones that are close to the max value that you are quoting are all pop items for GF NMs, and come from ilvl128+ fights.) At 10k accolades per, they are also a significantly worse point:gil conversion ratio than powders/shields/etc even in the best case scenario since the alternatives were 100% reliable and independent of the economy. They also do require defeating each UNM at least once to unlock their material for purchase, so there is a gameplay barrier involved (which can be bypassed by being carried, yes. But that goes for all content at this point other than Master Trials.)

I believe that there is very little inherent risk in excluding them in addition to EX items, and given how low demand on the AH is for any of them, I can only see the AH prices for all of them going down along with the current deflation trend, which will also discourage RMT from dealing with the low time:profit ratio.

But then the RMT would just bot Unity points, and run back and forth to that NPC buying pop items and selling them, setting the price trend (as opposed to sparks).
There are more than a handful of unity items that sell for good amounts of gil.

Why not just get the group in question who needs whatever Escha NM's, to come along with you and farm the needed Unity fights for pop items?
That way, everybody has something to do.

[Zuidar]

Would it not be possible to implement some more Apex mobs, would love to see some in the old zones, such as;

Valkurm Dunes, Sea Serpent Grotto, Yuhtunga Jungle, Beaucedine Glacier.

I'm sure are parts of these map, no one ever goes to.

I don't see that possible for older zones pre-adoulin maybe for some reasons. I can't think of a few apart from older zones having level correction pre-adoulin.

[Sirmarki]

I don't see that possible for older zones pre-adoulin maybe for some reasons. I can't think of a few apart from older zones having level correction pre-adoulin.

Maybe I'm wrong, (I know they aren't apex), but weren't there around level 101 mobs added to The Boyahda Tree?

[Kawar]

Greetings, everyone!
FFXI Producer Matsui here.

Alas, we’ll be delivering the FFXI Digest in text format once again.

This version update will mainly focus on aspects that were originally planned for the May version update that couldn’t be implemented due to some tasks being put on a halt.

As a countermeasure against RMT (real-money trading), we set a limit on the number of sparks of eminence and Unity accolades that can be exchanged each week.
While the STF (Special Task Force) have been tracking reported logs and strengthening their enforcement, we determined that it would be effective to also reduce some simple methods of earning gil. This countermeasure will affect regular players to some extent. However, in order to minimize effects on players, we opted to limit the number of points exchanged, rather than remove certain Records of Eminence objectives.

We don’t think this is a perfect solution and will consider adjustments if necessary, so we’d like to hear your opinions on this countermeasure.

Ambuscade will both feature returning enemies, Dullahan and Pteraketos.
We’ve added some new Dullahan-themed rewards, so please look forward to it!

I’d also like to briefly explain the reason for the adjustments made to alter egos.
Certain alter egos used Holy during Divine Emblem to gain enmity; however, after the adjustment to paladin that reduced the recast time of Divine Emblem, we noticed that these alter egos often ran out of MP. To address this, we’ve adjusted AAEV and Rughadjeen to use Flash during Divine Emblem instead. With August, however, we addressed this by improving his MP restoration methods, so he will continue to use Holy as before.

The development and operations team are gradually returning to their usual productivity, and we’re currently in process of preparing for the July version update.

We hope that you continue to enjoy FFXI!I will just go on record saying this there are people out there who will hate me saying it (RMT)

but i like to see your moving to do things to stop RMT from hurting a game that people like me who have played from ps2 till now love and hold so close to there hearts.

what i wish i would see from the FFXI Team and SE is the company takeing legal action on the 2-3 RMT sites running ADs just about nightly on my server and i would guess they do it on all servers.

but everything you do helps us to have a better ffxi and i love you guys keep up the good work.

[Nyarlko]

But then the RMT would just bot Unity points, and run back and forth to that NPC buying pop items and selling them, setting the price trend (as opposed to sparks).
There are more than a handful of unity items that sell for good amounts of gil.

Why not just get the group in question who needs whatever Escha NM's, to come along with you and farm the needed Unity fights for pop items?
That way, everybody has something to do.

If RMT all decided to shift their energy into farming accolades to buy UNM mats, they'd have to wait for stuff to sell on the AH rather than instant NPC-sourced gil, and demand simply isn't high enough for any of them to support the overly inflated supply resulting from them jumping into the market. Prices would crash, and crash hard, making it a less lucrative market for them to be a part of. It'd still eliminates the ability that RMT had to generate non-economically interactive funds due to being able to directly convert unlimited quantities of sparks/accolades directly into gil at a 1:10 ratio via instantaneous NPC sales. The mats are all dirt cheap when sold to NPCs, and even at the highest end of current pricing, AH value is much less than 1:10 value, so RMT income potential would still be vastly reduced. Even if UNM mats were excluded from the cap, it'd be less gil/hour potential for them to continue botting trash mobs for accolade/sparks farming than just about any actual content. That's still a big win IMO.

Still need to exclude all EX items regardless (that can't be sold for gil, if any exist,) since that almost exclusively hurts newer players/characters who need gear/Rems.

No one ever wants to actually fight UNMs. They are straight-up miserable with a full alliance. <,<
As the leader of a large, active ls I also have absolutely no desire to double~triple the amount of time required for any events. Our event schedule is full enough without trying to cram in UNM farming (which is also best done with smaller groups due to scaling, resulting in member exclusion.) We have no shortage of things to do even without forced UNM farming added to the mix. There was absolutely no need to when I was able to personally cover the pop item costs for everyone with my own accolades before this change. :(

[Alhanelem]

I will just go on record saying this there are people out there who will hate me saying it (RMT)

but i like to see your moving to do things to stop RMT from hurting a game that people like me who have played from ps2 till now love and hold so close to there hearts.

what i wish i would see from the FFXI Team and SE is the company takeing legal action on the 2-3 RMT sites running ADs just about nightly on my server and i would guess they do it on all servers.

but everything you do helps us to have a better ffxi and i love you guys keep up the good work.
I mean, I like it too in theory, I just think this doesn't hurt RMT and only hurts legitimate players.

[Zehira]

We don’t think this is a perfect solution and will consider adjustments if necessary, so we’d like to hear your opinions on this countermeasure.

We hope that you continue to enjoy FFXI!

Hello! Thank you for your time. I think it's about time you started discussing these significant issues we hear all over this official forums (both English & Japanese forums). Of course, Japanese players may say the same thing over and over about reporting to the STF and nothing happen. That's their culture and we have our own culture. I feel like as if I am not welcomed to any server outside of Asura due to the amount of gil I have in my pocket and I am fine with that. To be fair, Asura is not a perfect server. There, I speak for myself. :o

As I have just returned to Vana'diel after real life issues, I would still like to finish up my final phase of the Escutcheon shield, however being a legitimate player I don't know what I am supposed to do at this time. I would like you to continue discussing this issue with your fellow adventurers and helping us to understand.

Thank you again!

[Yoji_Fujito]

These adjustments were made based on requests brought up on the forums.
When we shortened the recast time of Divine Emblem, the alter egos kept their previous behavior of frequently casting their spells (Holy), which caused them to quickly run out of MP. We’ve readjusted their behaviors, so we hope you’ll try them out in battle again.

[Akihiko_Matsui]

Thank you all for your feedback.

We understand that many players feel that the current restrictions are too low and have run into the current set limit. We’ll continue to examine this. Rather than simply raising the limit and keeping in line with the current structure, we’re considering the addition of more effective methods with future countermeasures.

The development and operations teams are aware of RMT vendors bypassing the restrictions by using multiple accounts or repeatedly creating new characters. While we’d like to completely cut off the gil supply for RMT vendors, I believe it wouldn’t be possible without severely affecting regular players. Instead, our goal is to make the effort of RMT vendors selling gil not worth the real life benefits they would receive. Since the changes, we’ve received reports that RMT vendors have altered their activity patterns, and we’re also constantly penalizing accounts involved in fraudulent activity. Therefore, the changes had some effect but weren’t a decisive blow, and we’ll continue to take countermeasures.

On a related note, Sparks of Eminence are only intended to be a supplemental method for obtaining items such as Rem’s Tale Chapters. We’d like to encourage all players, beginners and veterans alike, to challenge themselves to primarily obtain these items through other means, such as High-Tier Mission Battlefields. Sparks of Eminence aren’t meant to completely replace the other content in that regard, but we’d like to hear your feedback if you encounter any issues with obtaining these items through other content.

We do not believe the issue can be resolved with just a one-time measure. Additionally, we want to make sure that these measures do not heavily affect everyone’s normal gameplay as well.

As always, we look forward to hearing your feedback.

[Taruitis]

You wanna combat RMT?? Put some GMs in zones. If we as player can spot a bot, I bet you can too! Taking actions that hurt actual players(such as sparks) does not fix or hinder RMTs, I am sure they got enough Gil with their 18 accounts per person... or maybe the 1000 job shouts per minute, or maybe the pay to win everything shouts... or the crafting bots that have been in the same zones for 2+ years running the same path... or the Dynamis bots that have been there 2+ years... or the AH pricing that seems to magically inflate by large amounts... jail these bots, temporary suspensions, and continue to do it. That will ensure SE still gets the monthly paid subscription $$$, and players will have access to content!! Amazing how simple it is(I know there is a little more to it than that). But I am wasting my breath, it’s not rocket science so you can make changes that impact the game positively for the player base... you have only had years to try and come up with a solution... if you can’t monitor RMT any better than this then you should just stop trying... it’s beyond ridiculous how bad they have become. Quit sugar coating these little changes and get on the offensive! End of rant. :p

With love,

Taru

[Sirmarki]

The Job Point sellers (aka botters) need to be dealt with, the Apex camps that players often (try) to use are swamped with them, all stuck on top of each other repeating killing monsters 24/7, and yell is 95% Job point sellers.

If something isn't done soon, there will be no spots left at all for us genuine players.

[Beastorizer]

I am noticing a reoccurring theme here Matsui; you have a vision.....which you force down the throats of the players.

For decades, BST was able to use ready or sic from the yonder. Even though BST like myself battled at close range, you wanted to force feed others to do so. Everyone hated it.

RMT was an issue for decades. Players and RMT always shared the same source of gil for the most part. Now, you once again force feed your vision upon the players.

Disclaimer: NO DISRESPECT MATSUI.

However, I feel like if you were in charge during the early 2000s, you would have force fed NIN as a elemental wheel DD instead of a tank as players were playing Ninja as......

I have no issue making money, or really fighting as BST (Unless my little bunny gets lost in a crowd and I cannot see it to come closer in attempt to use Ready....Which is why I like/want bigger pets...), but you gotta stop the force feeding man.....Disrupting players is not the answer to everything.

No shade, disrespect, just the opinion of one man.

[Venat]

MATSUI please remove animation lock on abilities. Most "power up" animations are exactly the same. It would improve the pace of combat and animation lock bloat.

[Pixela]

If you want to stop RMT you would be better off addressing the reason people BUY gil in the first place, not addressing ways the sellers get it.

Job points are way too hard for newer players to obtain, yet for players with a REMA they are too easy. You need to implement boosts for players to get job points for the first 100-150 (at least), it's so difficult right now that they just give up and buy Job Points from Bots who kill Apex monsters in seconds.

I understand you want a time sink, but it's not working. People are buying 500 job points for 10m gil, which is very little. I like getting my own job points but the amount of work and time it takes to get 500 means even I'm tempted to just buy them.

[Loshiniloi]

If you ask me the the cap on how many sparks you can spend on buying Skill-Up Books needs to be removed. Reason being is NOBODY would buy these from the Auction House and new/returning players that are finding it hard to skillup could get these books and stand around and pop them. If you put a limit on them it slows their ability to catch up on skills that they need for doing Endgame. Most shells that do Endgame don't want underskilled players in their ranks so why limit the amount of skill-up books people can get from NPCs? Again there's better things in the game to blow your gil on and Skill-Up books aren't one of those "better things"

[Kawar]

I mean, I like it too in theory, I just think this doesn't hurt RMT and only hurts legitimate players.

how would SE doing the same thing they did years a go hurt us. They took down an RMT company years a go by legal action and all i am asking is they do it again. we had very little rmt for years after they did it before that is the goal. force rmt to close up shop and force them to spend money and time to reopen. it is a big turn off now that prices are all so not as cheap as they were even 10 years a go.

[Sirmarki]

Job points are way too hard for newer players to obtain, yet for players with a REMA they are too easy. You need to implement boosts for players to get job points for the first 100-150 (at least), it's so difficult right now that they just give up and buy Job Points from Bots who kill Apex monsters in seconds.

and there is me wondering how I got to 75 in the old days, when solo got you 15xp per Easy Prey kill.

Only reason why people allegedly buy currency is because they can't be bothered, lazy, and would probably cheat in all other games anyway given the chance.

[Alhanelem]

how would SE doing the same thing they did years a go hurt us. They took down an RMT company years a go by legal action and all i am asking is they do it again. we had very little rmt for years after they did it before that is the goal. force rmt to close up shop and force them to spend money and time to reopen. it is a big turn off now that prices are all so not as cheap as they were even 10 years a go.
I think you're confused. I'm referring to the thing they did to combat RMT with this update. It doesn't hurt RMT, despite that being the intention, and it only hurts legitimate players.

[Sirmarki]

I think you're confused. I'm referring to the thing they did to combat RMT with this update. It doesn't hurt RMT, despite that being the intention, and it only hurts legitimate players.

Time will tell as SE have a lot more data on their side than we do, to plough through and analyse.

[Pixela]

and there is me wondering how I got to 75 in the old days, when solo got you 15xp per Easy Prey kill.

Only reason why people allegedly buy currency is because they can't be bothered, lazy, and would probably cheat in all other games anyway given the chance.

You can buy 500 job points for 7m, I can make 7m in a few hours. 500 job points would take me weeks, it would take someone far less geared than me months.

The only reason not to take the quick route is if you have the knowledge that you are ruining the game for yourself, but most don't understand this until it's too late. This is probably the 2nd source of players buying gil right now, just goto the apex camps and see how many idle players are there.

It's so bad now that it's rare to see someone without master stars, they wanted job points to be a long grind and at the start it was fine but they made it so long and boring that people now don't do it at all and bypass it. They messed up because they never re-visited it, it's ok to have a grind but it needs to feel like you're making progress. I've seen people taking 10-15 minutes to kill one apex monster, that's not meaningful progress when it's 1.5k job points to cap.

It's so bad at this point that it's rare to see apex parties at all now, it's easy to just farm the gil.

If they want to address RMT they need to make job point acquisition less awful, or people will just pay more for the gil no matter how annoying they make it for sellers.

[Atomic646]

returned for the "ffxi return to vana'diel" thing after 2 yrs to this bs.. yeaaa. really screwed over everyone BUT the rmts. nice job SE... glad I quit in late 2019 now, hopefully the servers get shutdown soon on this spaghetti code game. trash