Add a super rare cosmetic armor drop to Sortie.

[Pixela]

The super rare Tartarus Platemail from Vagary made it relevant for years with hardcore players, it made people make groups to get others clears to try get that platemail. People with this armor showed it off as a prestige armor when they got it.

You want people to make groups to invite randoms so they can try get the rare drop.

People will complain about the .01% drop rate, but they will complain while still playing the game.

Hardcore players need a hardcore goal, XI needs another hardcore goal again.

Add a reskinned Tartarus Platemail with reskinned wings, or see the hardcore players lose interest.

[Sp1cyryan]

What if players just bot it?!

Don't "hardcore" players have enough work cut out for them with the earring system?

[Pixela]

Game needs uber rare drops back again.

I lived and breathed HNM for 3-4 years back in the day purely to get a dalmy (at a point I had very little else I had worth doing), others I know practically (or did) quit when they finally got their tart mail.

If they added, for example a +1 set of lillith gear with a few extra stats and a white box lots of hardcore players would be all in on that sht for as long as it took to get the full set.

[Sp1cyryan]

Game needs uber rare drops back again.

I lived and breathed HNM for 3-4 years back in the day purely to get a dalmy (at a point I had very little else I had worth doing), others I know practically (or did) quit when they finally got their tart mail.

If they added, for example a +1 set of lillith gear with a few extra stats and a white box lots of hardcore players would be all in on that sht for as long as it took to get the full set.

I don't feel "über" rare drops add to the value of the game.

[Pixela]

That's you though, you know full well many do.

[Sp1cyryan]

That's you though, you know full well many do.

Yeah, but it's okay to be wrong.

[Alhanelem]

FFXI has enough dependence on RNG as it is, I really don't care to see more "super rare" drops that everyone else will get but I never see in my lifetime. I can spend just as much time grinding master levels or whatever else and be actually making progress, im not going to waste the same amount of time on a 0.001% drop for a vanity item.

If you want to waste your life repeating the same battle a million times just for a trophy that tells everyone you did so, power to you I guess. But I don't think that's something many of us are looking for (or can't already get through existing means)

[Alhanelem]

Add a reskinned Tartarus Platemail with reskinned wings, or see the hardcore players lose interest. Please don't act as if you represent everyone around you. Or have you already ML40'd every job and gotten all of every job's relic empyrean and AF 119 +3?

[Voidstorm]

Just remove the [Ex] tag from the ??? Earring /+1/+2's.
The event will become evergreen since +2's & the possibly added +3 ears will endlessly bring in gil for the hardcore players.


also, please don't add a super rare drop. I agree this event has too much hard RNG already.

[Stuzey]

Well, they could add a super rare drop, then in three months add it to Trove, with a higher chance of getting it ;)

Is Sortie even completed content yet? I haven't kept up to date with the plans, but are they planning updates to it, for +3 empy gear, or will that be seperate content?

[Pixela]

I saw a post from a long time player not too long ago, that finally got his tart mail. He quit a month later. A goal is a reason to keep going, a lack of a goal is a reason to stop.

A HNM ls friend camped every king every day for years, the moment he got his heca legs from nid he started missing camps and within a few months he was gone. Then a few months later he came back on a totally new character, with a clean slate of goals to work on.

I've been in shells with people who are really driven, play a lot and need goals and I've seen them get their long lusted after drop and quit soon after.

These things aren't in the game for the majority of players, these things are added to keep the achievers and hardcore players chugging along. These people need a goal and becasue they are hardcore they eat up every goal you put in-front of them, you need an ultra rare drop to keep them engaged.

If you don't do it, they will quit.

Again, it is fine if it's a cosmetic item but it needs to be rare and look good.

[Pixela]

...........

[Pixela]

If they added this to Lillith VD as a rare drop, and you're telling me all the serious players would not spam it you're full of it.

https://i.imgur.com/8kTCgvO.jpg

This isn't about lillith but the point remains, this game is built on this stuff. From ultra rare +1 crafted items worth hundreds of millions, king gear, vagary rare drops, master trial glow weapons etc. Add more.

[Sp1cyryan]

Pixela, your desire for style over substance is your burden to bear. They regularly add cosmetic items to the game already.

[Alhanelem]

Well, they could add a super rare drop, then in three months add it to Trove, with a higher chance of getting it ;)

Is Sortie even completed content yet? I haven't kept up to date with the plans, but are they planning updates to it, for +3 empy gear, or will that be seperate content?
I remember reading +3 will come from something different.

What bugs me is they also said this content would take place in a new area but it's ra'kaznar U, which definitely already exists.

[VoiceMemo]

Isn't there already super rare drops in sortie? The max stat earring +2s. Since these are only from old case +1, and only a chance to get them AND you need the luck to be the job you want AND max stats. That is Luck upon Luck upon Luck so I see no need to add any other such item to sortie.

[Faladrin]

I've never done any end game but I got 2 Tartarus Plates from trove. What do I get?

[Faladrin]

How about content for people with lives that isn't behind a super low drop rate and ideally something you can do without a party. That would be nice, thanks (and no, I don't want it in Trove).

[Cherrywine]

I'd consider the Shinryu HTBF proof that having "rare" gear doesn't increase participation in something or its desirability. The community has rightfully turned its back on that disaster of loot distribution.
HNM times are dead. Most of us have families/careers/responsibilities that compete with our playtime. Nothing should roll out with microscopic drop rates. If content must be gated, do so like DDyna, where we can only enter it a few times a week. This way, when we do go, it is enjoyable and not a waste of time.
It is when the game feels like a waste of time that people start to quit.

[Faladrin]

I'm a huge proponent of giving a tiny chance to just plain drop something great but then also give a system where a player can see steady measurable progress. No one should be at the mercy of a sub 5% drop rate (and honestly sub 10% if that is the only way to get something is pushing it as far as I am concerned). On the other end if you require a player to get something by storing up points or tokens or whatever and therefore the player knows what they are getting into, even if it's something that will take weeks or even a few months to get... that's fine.

If you want to make purely cosmetic stuff super rare lottery drop I guess I could care less, because I don't care about cosmetics. For players who do though I'd let them chime in on how they feel about that.

[Pixela]

I'd consider the Shinryu HTBF proof that having "rare" gear doesn't increase participation in something or its desirability. The community has rightfully turned its back on that disaster of loot distribution.
HNM times are dead. Most of us have families/careers/responsibilities that compete with our playtime. Nothing should roll out with microscopic drop rates. If content must be gated, do so like DDyna, where we can only enter it a few times a week. This way, when we do go, it is enjoyable and not a waste of time.
It is when the game feels like a waste of time that people start to quit.

No they haven't given up on it, they may do it less but they still do it and still want those drops (also they added most of them to AMAN, so most have them now)

The point of super rare drops is to give super hardcore players something to still keep playing for, I know people that quit within months of getting that super rare drop they always wanted to get. This does happen, and these people would not quit if there was still a super rare drop to chase.

Human nature is what it is.

[Alhanelem]

For me super rare drops aren't an incentive to keep playing, they're an incentive to ignore whatever has them drop, unless it's something I really truly need, even then I usually just accept that I'm not going to get those things. Time sinks where your success is largely assured even if it takes a really long time are far, far preferable to the possibility that, for instance, you might kill the NM 1000 times and never get the drop and a friend gets it in a few tries.

I vastly prefer grinding for the super weapons to that 0.01% drop that I'm never going to get. You don't need super rare drops to keep people busy.

If you have nothing to do in the game right now, I can list a ton of things you probably haven't done yet. Like gotten every job to ML40 (and later ML50).

[Pixela]

All you have to do is look at people buying Aman spheres to see hardcore players REALLY want specific ultra rare items.

[Rinuko]

...........

I like this post.

[Pixela]

No matter how much someone loves a game, when they have nothing left to work towards they will stop playing.

Adding super rare items works.

A great appeal of ff11 is it's near impossible to run out of things to do, that needs to be kept true. Even for really hardcore players.

[Sp1cyryan]

I like this post.

It was their best post yet.

[Alhanelem]

QUOTE=Pixela;649235]No matter how much someone loves a game, when they have nothing left to work towards they will stop playing.

Adding super rare items works.

A great appeal of ff11 is it's near impossible to run out of things to do, that needs to be kept true. Even for really hardcore players.[/QUOTE]

Super rare items is a *&#^*$#$y way to do this. Why do you think master level was made such a huge grind. That alone will keep hardcore people busy for some time.

Why did they add another relic-like weapon line? Same reason.

Stuff you can work towards is far more compelling than something based primarily on random chance.

[Pixela]

I know XIV players that are quitting because they login and have nothing to work on, I don't want that to be the case for XI.

For XIV I can understand why it's the case, for XI it's a hardcore MMO.

You can do all of the things above, you can have REMA, MLev etc and still add super rare drops from content.

I spammed the ever loving crap out of lilith, then I capped and I haven't done it since. If they added +1 Malignance armor, I would do it again.

[Alhanelem]

I know XIV players that are quitting because they login and have nothing to work on, I don't want that to be the case for XI.I don't. Because there is tons for them to work on. There are rare drops in FFXIV. Funny enough, not many people go after them. I guess it just goes to show that rare drops aren't a big lure.

I can list dozens if not hundreds of things that most people haven't done. Here's just a few.
Earned "The Necromancer" title for clearing 1F-200F of Palace of the Dead solo. Probably more people have cleared ultimate raids than done this.
Earned the title for clearing 1F-100F of Heaven-on-High solo. More people have done this than the above.
Cleared all the ultimate raids
Collected all Orchestrion Rolls, many of which are extremely rare drops or have to jump through annoying hoops to get
Collected all Triple Triad cards and earned all related achievements
Completed all relic weapons, anima weapons, and each other expansion's simialr line.
Defeated Absolute Virtue (not even 1% as hard as it would have been at 75 in FFXI, but is part of content that isn't commonly done anymore)
Collected hundreds of cosmetic items that are far more rare than anything that has stats on it. I'd think you'd be all over this one
Won the Cactpot (Rare random chance)
Collected every hairstyle (rare drops from treasure map instances in particular)
Collected every emote (many are rare drops from things with other luck factors as well (Treasure map instances like the Exciteatron 2000)
Collected every mount (many are rare drops from boss fights)
Collected every minion (many are rare drops from boss fights)

Many of those rare drops can have their odds increased by clearing the related content with the "minimum item level" setting, which dramatically increases the difficulty of the content.

There's literally a gazillion things for people to collect and grind for in FFXIV. If collecting things and getting rare drops are so important to player retention, those people you know have no excuse.


You keep saying things like "i know ppl who want/do this." Well, I know plenty of people who don't. You can't use something like that as justification. It's subjective and based on false pretenses.

[Pixela]

XIV to serious MMORPG players (especially from XI) is like giving a starving man a biscuit.

The main endgame on XIV is buying outfits from the cash shop.

[Sp1cyryan]

I know XIV players that are quitting because they login and have nothing to work on, I don't want that to be the case for XI.

For XIV I can understand why it's the case, for XI it's a hardcore MMO.

You can do all of the things above, you can have REMA, MLev etc and still add super rare drops from content.

I spammed the ever loving crap out of lilith, then I capped and I haven't done it since. If they added +1 Malignance armor, I would do it again.

Good for them. 14 has little to no substance is why. It doesn't matter what goes on there though as it is not a template for 11.

[Alhanelem]

14 has little to no substance is why.Highly subjective and I disagree. Which isn't to say it doesn't have flaws, but "lack of substance" isn't one of them.

[Pixela]

FF14 started off as a serious mmorpg, but they then noticed the kind of audience they had and started turning it into a second life knockoff.

Which is working out well for them, cause they need to buy all those outfits to post the gpose screenshots on twitter.

[Alhanelem]

but they then noticed the kind of audience they had and started turning it into a second life knockoff.I don't think it's the game doing it at all. There is a segment of the playerbase that does this, but they're just a highly visible minority.



The main endgame on XIV is buying outfits from the cash shop. This is one of the silliest things you've ever said. "Glamour is the true endgame" != "The true endgame is buying things from the cash shop."

There's tons of glamor in game, no cash shop needed, that you have to earn and work for and a lot of it is very rare stuff. The cash shop mostly offers old seasonal items and NPC cosplays.

But this isn't about comparing FFXI and FFXIV, it's refuting your argument that stupidly rare stuff drives activity in MMOs. You made that as a general statement, not just for FFXI. Thus I can refer to other games to prove that you're wrong. Grinding is just as much a driving force in player retention as rare stuff, and likely more so.

[Pixela]

FFXIV and ARR started as a proper MMORPG trying to copy WoW.

As the years rolled on, more and more people from the Second Life / Sims community moved into the game and more and more casual players that hate mmorpgs started joining it. Since they needed the game to be a success they leaned into this hard, cause these people buy outfits, animations, pets, mounts etc (btw wow is leaning into this too now, for the same reasons) The cash shop on ff14 is ridiculous now, and the players LOVE it.

Now I would say the majority of people who play XIV are this kind of casual / second life enjoyer type of player and there are far less raider / grinder / dungeon enjoyers in the community.

The main passtime is standing around Limsa, gambling, buying new dances and animations, decorating your house, going to weird dance shows in each others basements, taking pictures of your characters with Gpose for twitter, weird modding, buying outfits, rp etc. Lots of people are paying a sub to do this, not the actual mmorpg content, they never leave the cities.

XIV has far more in common now with Second life than wow or ffxi, the main drive for the game is appealing to these kinds of people. They even actively dumb the game down and make everything have high drops rates to try allow these people to do some dungeon content. The game is also moderated at a level that would make twitter blush, again because that's what these hyper casuals want. You say it's a vocal minority, I say it's the active majority.

XIV is as close to a metaverse as anyone has gotten so far, because so many people just login to live their online life in the game and stand around dancing or whatever..instead of logging in to grind out weapons or stuff.

BTW I don't think there is anything wrong with what XIV is doing, it works and is profitable but pretending it's not this is laughable.

[Sp1cyryan]

You lost me at "proper MMORPG trying to copy WoW."

[Alhanelem]

crap I'm really not going to waste time addressing directly

Look man, this is all mostly irrelevant. You are here insisting that everyone wants to chase 0.001% drop rate items. I'm here to tell you it takes a special kind of masochist to want that. Most people don't want that, they get far more out of distant yet attainable goals to keep them playing. If there is one running theme in complaints about FFXI over the years, it's people moaning about (*#&$ drop rates. No one wants #*&$# drop rates. Except maybe you. All I did was refer to other MMOs as examples of rare drops not being a big motivating factor.

[Pixela]

A lot of people do want it here, even if they say they don't.

[Alhanelem]

A lot of people do want it here, even if they say they don't.No. Don't do that, you can't do that. If people say they don't want something, they don't want something.

[Pixela]

Many serious XI players are goal orientated, when there are no goals they have no reason to play anymore.

People will complain about goals being long winded or annoying, but when they have no goals they will be far more upset because there is no longer anything to do to keep them tethered to the game.

The saying goes "the only thing worse than not getting what you want, is getting it" and I experienced this and I didn't like it, because it literally lead to me quitting.

I and people like me need the carrot on the stick, we will complain about how annoying it is to get to the carrot but once the carrot is gone our drive to move forward goes with it.

[Alhanelem]

Many serious XI players are goal orientated, when there are no goals they have no reason to play anymore.Maybe you haven't been reading, but I'm all about goals. But goals that you can gradually make progress on. Not coin tosses with 1000 to 1 odds.

And I'm confident that applies to most of the people you think you're representing. Goals you can work towards = good. Trying to hit 7s on a slot machine = bad.

[Pixela]

XI has a larger percentage of super grinders than any other game, these people need to be catered to and it's not hard to do so.

These people can play 5-8 hours a day, 7 day a week. They have capped all jobs, capped all jobs to master, have 20-30 REMA, have every BIS and are currently demoilishing Mlevel on every job like machines. Once they cap Mlev they will be outraged and say XI sucks becasue they have nothing to do. Back in the day these people were kept going with King drops with low drop rates, roadblocks on content (only enter once every so often) etc The game needs super rare things such as +1 drops with slightly better stats, rare cosmetics or something.

Adding super rare drops works in this kind of game, it keeps them invested in a way a grind never will. These people are like the Terminator, monotony has zero meaning, I used to be like this and so I know.

[Sp1cyryan]

Stop making excuses for your personal pursuit of vanity.

[Alhanelem]

XI has a larger percentage of super grinders than any other game,I agree! Which is why grindy, attainable goals serve the playerbase far better than buying powerball tik- i mean adding 0.001% drop rate items.

I mean, it's amazing how much you support my own arguments with your demands for a bad idea.

[Pixela]

I'm mainly talking about long term goals for really hardcore players, that will burn through grinds.

I'm not talking about gear everyone will want, I'm talking abotu gear a minority of serious players will chase.

[Alhanelem]

I'm mainly talking about long term goals for really hardcore players, that will burn through grinds.Again, so am I. Rare item drops are not long term goals, they're potentially immediate or potentially never goals. People hate unnecessary RNG. Even the most hardcore players don't like RNG.



I'm not talking about gear everyone will want, I'm talking abotu gear a minority of serious players will chase. You're contradicting yourself.

I've been playing the game as long as anyone else here, I've been in HNM shells and camped the big three for literally years (and never for my own benefit). The vast majority of players, even the most serious ones, do not get excited over the idea of super rare drops, nor is it a motivator for them to keep playing. Content and goals are what keep people playing. And goals you can make progress towards are far more complelling for any player than things that are entirely based on luck.

We don't need these things, and I haven't yet seen anyone besides you ask for them.

[Pixela]

Tartarus_Platemail kept Vagary relevant long after it should of died.

Tartarus_Platemail kept people making Vagary alliances long after they had the main gear upgrades.

Tartarus_Platemail kept people playing long after they capped everything else they wanted.

Tartarus_Platemail as well as Omen bodies are why people buy hundreds of millions worth of orbs for AMAN trove.

I know people who literally quit after they got the Tartarus_Platemail they had been trying to get for years previously.

I'm aware nobody likes RNG, the point I'm making is that extreme rare items keep people engaged when nothing else would.

[Alhanelem]

Tartarus_Platemail kept Vagary relevant long after it should of died.Vagary was and is relevant for far more than that.



Tartarus_Platemail kept people making Vagary alliances long after they had the main gear upgrades.It may shock you to learn that the game doesn't really run out of people who need those upgrades. I don't know *anyone* who is making alliances just for Tartarus Platemail. Not to mention demand for this content increased after the release of Empyrean +2/+3




Tartarus_Platemail kept people playing long after they capped everything else they wanted.
Or maybe it's all the other content in the game that has existed already and that which has come out since.


Tartarus_Platemail kept people playing long after they capped everything else they wanted


Tartarus_Platemail as well as Omen bodies are why people buy hundreds of millions worth of orbs for AMAN trove..
AMAN trove barely qualifies as content, it's just a rare item roulette. While people do do it largely because it has rare items, it really is not something that keeps people playing, as it has no substance., and outside of the current campaign, you can only do it every so often. That being said, there's plenty enough rare items from this one content to keep the ten people who want rare things just because they're rare things happy- especially since they can just keep trying for them to sell them for gil.

There are items I want from Trove because they are useful. But I promise you, if I was thinking about cancelling, AMAN trove would definitely not keep me playing. And I don't do it as often as possible because realistically, I'm just not going to get them without buying them and most of what isn't the equipment drops are just literal trash that I can't even vendor to an NPC.


SE should be investing whatever development time they have on content that most people want. Not what a few bored people I can count on my hands who love slot machines want.

[Sp1cyryan]

Tartarus_Platemail kept Vagary relevant long after it should of died.

Tartarus_Platemail kept people making Vagary alliances long after they had the main gear upgrades.

Tartarus_Platemail kept people playing long after they capped everything else they wanted.

Tartarus_Platemail as well as Omen bodies are why people buy hundreds of millions worth of orbs for AMAN trove.

I know people who literally quit after they got the Tartarus_Platemail they had been trying to get for years previously.

I'm aware nobody likes RNG, the point I'm making is that extreme rare items keep people engaged when nothing else would.

False. Vagary is relevant because of empyrean +1/2/3 and gil. The body has likely no meaningful impact on that.

[Pixela]

False. Vagary is relevant because of empyrean +1/2/3 and gil. The body has likely no meaningful impact on that.

Why would people who make alliances make them after 5 clears to be able to upgrade af3? Before it was added to a drop to AMAN people would make groups and take randoms into vagary purely so they could get the body. They did it over and over and over again, a lot of the people on Asura with Vagary clears (they have to buy them now) got their clears thanks to this body.

AMAN trover buyers, usually are buying them to get this body, Omen bodies and Shin rare drops.

[Pixela]

SE should be investing whatever development time they have on content that most people want. Not what a few bored people I can count on my hands who love slot machines want.

The effort it takes to add a +1 set of Lillith gear or a 119 variant of some rare drop that already exists is minimal, and will keep people working on them for years.

[Alhanelem]

Why would people who make alliances make them after 5 clears to be able to upgrade af3?Because a lot of people need this stuff and it's not trivial for just a few people so may as well take as many people as you can?



The effort it takes to add a +1 set of Lillith gear or a 119 variant of some rare drop that already exists is minimal, and will keep people working on them for years. If I've learned anything from 20 years of FFX is that everything is orders of magnitude more effort to make in this game than anyone thinks it is.

And most people will be like me- they'll do it a few times, not get the drop, and give up. Or maybe you'll get it first try, and in either case, you won't be doing it again.

Please, just accept the fact that people who like rare drops are about as rare as the rare drops themselves.

[Pixela]

FFXI is literally built on and existed as such for most of its life.

[Alhanelem]

FFXI is literally built on and existed as such for most of its life. That doesn't mean that it was a good thing and that everyone liked it. FFXI succeeded in spite of its #($%^ drop rates, not because of them.

Its easy to cheap out on content and just make the drops rare so people have to do it a million times, when you could just make more and better content that you do because it's actually fun rather than because of the tiny chance of getting a cool item.

[Pixela]

It lasted 20 years, it 100% does.

Nothing succeeds despite something, it's almost always because of it.

No matter how much I love this game, the moment I have no goals left I will stop playing and I'm not alone in that. Running this game like 14 will kill it, because the audiences are a lot different.

[Alhanelem]

It lasted 20 years, it 100% does.There's zero correlation between the ultra rare drops and how long the game has been running. Zero.

And again, I agree with you, goals are necessary. But goals don't have to be luck based, and pretty much everyone would prefer that they weren't. Which is why they're adding yet another set of super weapons. They're designed to take time but to be achievable. without being wholly dependent on random chance.

This is where we're not connecting. You say you need goals and I've been saying I agree goals are needed. But goals != minuscule drop rate rewards. Goals can be anything, so we may as well make them things people actually want to do vs just giving us another glorified slot machine.

Thewe's content I still haven't done to this day and I have basically none of the famous rare drops that you claim are so vital. There is still absolutely no shortage of things to do.

[Pixela]

They need both, and the super rare drops don't have to be for you and they don't have to be OP but they do need to be part of the game like this.

The problem with grinds made for hardcore players is the length the grind it has to be is a massive mental barrier. With RNG the time can be the same but the mental barrier to engage is far lower because every run is a chance for it to drop.

It took me about 6-7 months (about 10-20 kills a week) to get a full set of Malignance gear, every run was "will it drop" and so every run was exciting and engaging, which is why I kept coming back. As opposed to 6 months of solid grinding where I know I will get nothing till the end, which would of been far more mundane and off-putting.

I'm trying to think and I'm pretty sure I have obtained everything in this game that I wanted to get, that was from RNG (except crep cloak so far). Including a Kraken Club, every NM drop I camped, everything from kings and other HNM. I can't think of one thing I wanted, tried to get and didn't power though to get (other than crep cloak but I haven't really been trying that hard, and it's still on my mental list).

All my Limbus gear was RNG, All my Dynamis gear was RNG, All my Salvage gear was RNG, all my king gear was RNG, every NM drop was RNG, every BCNM drop was RNG, many Escha drops were RNG. I hated them all at the time, but it's part of the reason I'm still here.

I understand where you're coming from and why you dislike rng, I just have a different outlook on it.

[Sp1cyryan]

Why would people who make alliances make them after 5 clears to be able to upgrade af3? Before it was added to a drop to AMAN people would make groups and take randoms into vagary purely so they could get the body. They did it over and over and over again, a lot of the people on Asura with Vagary clears (they have to buy them now) got their clears thanks to this body.

AMAN trover buyers, usually are buying them to get this body, Omen bodies and Shin rare drops.

Just making up the overall narrative to suit your desires.

[Dragoy]

AMAN trove barely qualifies as content, it's just a rare item roulette. While people do do it largely because it has rare items, it really is not something that keeps people playing, as it has no substance., and outside of the current campaign, you can only do it every so often. That being said, there's plenty enough rare items from this one content to keep the ten people who want rare things just because they're rare things happy- especially since they can just keep trying for them to sell them for gil.

There are items I want from Trove because they are useful. But I promise you, if I was thinking about cancelling, AMAN trove would definitely not keep me playing. And I don't do it as often as possible because realistically, I'm just not going to get them without buying them and most of what isn't the equipment drops are just literal trash that I can't even vendor to an NPC.

Well, there are 21 RoE objectives related to A.M.A.N. Trove (and I think at the time of writing I'm missing some more from the latest Voracious Resurgence missions), which does expand it at least a little content-wise.

Definitely not something that keeps me around though (really only play due to the friends that still play), but I do tend to do the monthly things (while not actually using all of the Silver Vouchers for the time being, and as such, I have more than 400 at the moment, plus over 300 on other characters that I have started to level up to 99 to one day use them up... so in a way Trove does make (some) people do (other) things even if it is not much of content itself).

Funny enough, I don't recall wanting the Tartarus Platemail, ever, but I got it from Trove pretty quick. That's just how it goes of course; if I actually really really wanted it, it would take ages and some!