[dev1009] Notorious monster adjustments...

[Musahashi]

How do you justify the adjustments your making to the blackbelt NM's?

I know why your changing this, but why punish the entire population of FFXI players, when it makes more sense to ban those players using 3rd party software in order to monopolise the blackbelt.

Surely the £9 they pay each month can't make that much of a difference to the billionares collecting the paychecks... So why punish us?

Now if the pop item wass dropped by a normal monster or NM, spawned under normal timed conditions, this would be a more fair solution to your problem, making people spend 99 kindred seals to fight an NM that isn't garuanteed to drop the required item, isn't going to do this, instead you'll find the cheats back at work monopolising the KSNM system. Well done SE!

[Secondplanet]

I know i'll get blasted for this but i think ALL nm's should be pop ones, Reason you ask? A friend wants the emp hairpin.... yeah its old school but they are just starting, anyways you go to the dunes and next thing you know there is a whole LS camping him, not for his hairpin but for the trial weapons. You can ask them if your friend could have said hairpin and they either blank you or say party is full. Keep the pop NM's for the trial weapons but make a ??? that you trade an item to pop one that drops the equipment now. Perfect example make us of the damslefly worm, trade it to a ??? to spawn the Valkhurm Empress, wouldn't that make more sense?

But again going back to the original post, SE hasn't said what the % on drop for the item will be maybe they'll amp it up to about 50% but again knowing SE it will be like 10%.

[RAIST]

This touches on my main problem with the new system--completely taking the BB drops away from the NQ NM's. I just don't understand why they felt the need to do this. They are reducing the drop rate on the HQ so they no longer are 100% drop, and the pop item is NOT going to be 100% drop from the NQ NM's either.

If they had left the drop on the NQ's, then you would have ~5% drop rate on the KSNM99, 100% rate on NQ NM pop item. That NM could have stayed with the ~10% drop rate for BB item, and whatever the % drop rate for the HQ NM. Then the HQ would have the reduced drop rate for the BB items as well. This would still leave you somewhere between 5-10% drop rate for the items on the first two options to get them. The third option can't be factored in yet, as the rates are unknown--but if the pop item falls at 50% and the BB items fall from the HQ at 50%, that still can potentially come down to a 25% chance (theoretically) to get the BB items and still require a lot of work (could potentially have to do multiple KS99 runs to get NQ, to get HQ and still get no drop and rinse/repeat).

With the 5% rate on the KS99, and (IF they kept it) a 10% drop rate on the NQ--you might well end up with your BB items on the multiple runs to get to HQ fight again if you fail to get the items on the HQ fight--but could still have to run the process 3-5 times before you get the items (again, theory). So, some could get lucky and get them in 1, 2, or 3 fights--while some with a streak of bad luck could have to do up to 12 (or even more) fights just to get ONE item (taking HOURS of time and effort, might I add). That hardly seems unbalanced to the point to justify completely removing the drops from the NQ NM.

[Musahashi]

This isn't a question of making the NM's require pop items, or a question of the drop rates. It's a question of SE policy and fair play. In SE's terms and conditions, everybody accepts that 3rd party software is not allowed to be used, yet people do, and this makes the game unfair, the Black belt is the number 1 reason for this, allowing players to monopolise the items. SE should be banning those players, not destroying any sense of hope that a player once had.

Further more, they are not making any sense when it comes to getting an item, especially if it will take a KS99 fight, the players previously monopolising the items will continue to do so, by selling the KS that they will farm. I don't see a solution to any of the mentioned problems by doing this, only moving the problem further into troubled water.

As I said, either give players the ability to gain a pop item outside of a KS99 fight, or leave the system alone.

[Anewie]

The whining is getting out of hand.

If you cannot find some form of pleasure with the updates and you don't want to offer any solutions or possible fixes to what you deem unfair or whatever, go play a different game. You complained about botting and you got instanced mobs and you're still complaining? If it wasn't delivered to your mog house, would you be happy?

Theres nothing standing in the way of you getting black belt.. You can easily go farm KS seals in your free time. What is the problem NOW? Oh... It costs too many k seals!!! Boohoo. Its the BEST belt in game. Stop complaining and when you have the free time, farm for it. No one is going to stand in your way. Not cheaters, your back problems or even the drop rates. This is a good update for you people, so stop complaining and play the game. This is not unreasonable. It's an amazing item...

It should require some heft effort.

[Flunklesnarkin]

I am so sick of you whiney players.

GO PLAY WOW. You complained about botting and you got instanced mobs and you're still COMPLAINING? GTFO.

THERES NO ONE STANDING IN THE WAY OF YOU GETTING BLACK BELT BESIDES THE FACT THAT YOU'RE LAZY. You can easily go farm KS seals in your free time. What is the problem NOW? Oh... It costs too many k seals!!! Boohoo. Its the BEST belt in game. Stop complaining and when you have the free time, farm for it. No one is going to stand in your way. Not cheaters, your back problems or even the drop rates. This is a good update for you people, so stop complaining and play the game. This is not unreasonable. It's an amazing item...

I'm tired of the whining on these forums. You guys blaming botters for not getting k seals now!!!? Id say kill yourself but that maybe against forum rules.. I can only hope someday SE Hires Isladar to moderate these forums.

U mad

but i agree with the general sentiment

[Anewie]

U mad

but i agree with the general sentiment

I'm really not mad. I'm actually happy DRING is more accessable now. That's awesome but these forums are not and should not be a place for people to just whine. It's all over and it makes this forum so unattractive. I'm not saying this should be like BG, bg can be elitest and unfriendly but BG is logic friendly and these forums are not atm.

It's really just a bunch of people griping an complaining about everything and not offering possible and logical fixes. That shouldn't be what these forums are used for. And the same people making the same threads over and over. These already five of this very same thread.

[Twille]

i agree with making the NQ & HQ HNMS force pop only. i think making the required pop item a KSNM drop is a terrible idea, and by terrible, i mean TERRIBLE.

[Greatguardian]

I had no idea that Black Belt items were the #1 reason for the existence of third party programs in FFXI. I guess you learn something new every day.

[Duelle]

Personally, I have a feeling the devs are trying to be clever and introduce the other drops into the economy by forcing people to fight the land kings more. Problem is that I also feel the set up is dumb. I'm fine with the drop being removed from KS99, but not with it being removed from the land kings themselves. Faf should keep its chance to drop the beard, nerf Nidhogg's chance to drop it as you like, but otherwise little needed to be changed.

[Anewie]

I'm sorry but NOBODY with any sense of longevitty in endgame, was thinking/caring about kings since odin was introduced. KS99 drops bb item plenty and odin drops all king abjys PLUS extra nice stuff.

Anyone who was running around complaining about black belt/king abjurations in the last 3 years was a noob, who didn't try and didn't care. Theres no excuse for not having black belt at this point or 2-3 years ago.

[Afrohatch]

Sometimes I wonder if the people bitching about the changes have even been to a king camp since Abyssea was released. They're mostly deserted, and bots don't do shit when it's just 2-3 people camping that use them.

[Squirrels]

I love all the whining about bots(NOTE: SE can only track a bot if it actually changes something inside the files sent between the user and the server.IE Packet bots like Arenz,K2 and NASA) and monopolization. SE actually listened to you guys and made the pop items come from KS99 and you guys are still mad. At what exactly? I'm sorry that all the AbysseaMNKs(if you didn't have your black belt and you were a MNK before abyssea, you never cared in the first place) are mad because they didn't hand you the black belt through the Delivery Box.

Day 1-3 Asipd/KB were never camped(hell I've seen Aspid up and unclaimed many times), generally only 6-12 people at Fafnir day 1-3. If you wanted a Black Belt so bad, you should have actually went down to the camps and put some work in. Or you could have paid 1-2m per item like a lot of people did. Money in this game was never hard to make, you just have to know what to do.

And about the Billionaires taking money out of their salary, if Bill Gates saw $20 on the ground, you could bet your ass he'd bend down to pick it up.

[Vold]

I've been reconsidering my stance in the past few days. I'm leaning in the general direction of this being a positive change just because it's far more realistic now to do pick up shouts for the KSNM fights. But it's only positive for as long as people have seals to burn... so that's still a pretty big strike against the change. I also suppose if a person is starting from scratch it's going to hurt. My point of view comes from one friend needing the turtle egg to finish his so I've formed a biased view point in the interest of not going back to 3 hour camping turtle any longer.

In before SE announces the new 24 hour HNMs they are implementing are going to take the place of Adaman/Faf/behe at their respective areas......

[Musahashi]

Ok, so to all those people who think this is a good idea, how many of you have farmed for Kindred seals? I doubt any of you have. I on the other hand have done, the chance of getting a KS is apalling, so to make it only possible to get a black belt through KS99 fights... you see where I'm going with this?

Did I ever say I was whining at cheaters or the new system? No, I was whining at the fact that SE would rather make the game shit than solve any problems within the game. And rather than remove cheaters, they'd rather move them somewhere else (RMT reminders anyone?)

Now, for althose with any realistic input, I'm sure you'd agree that going through KS99's is just not going to work. Make the pop item available through normal fights, or don't change anything.

And for all those here to troll or flame, there are other forums for that. Go post your quotes somewhere else.

[Twille]

I'm in agreement that Kindred Seals are a horrible way to implement the force-pop kings. Everything else about the change is fine.

[Kindra]

Yea it was the Kindred's seal's themselves that kinda made me worry about this update. And not knowing what the drop rate for the HQ pop item will be will also play a role in all this. As an example say you do the NQ fight 3-4 times before you even get an HQ pop you would be spending 296-396 kindred's seals just to get to that point (this is based on just one person). Being able to buy the NQ pop item is cool but that will also depend on how much people decide they are worth. Some may say about 200k for it others may go higher then that just based on the # of seals they had to spend.

Other then the # of seals you would have to go through or the drop rate for the HQ pop item I like this idea of them being popped.

[Denabond]

Wow another king thread. Not like we haven't had enough of these already. Ill just repeat what i said before, farming 99KSs isn't as bad as camping, We don't know how rare it is to get a HQ king pop from the NQ, and being reduced from 100% down to 50% wouldn't make much of a difference(yes its a assumption but we cant bitch about its drop rate til we know how much it was lowered). Is it hard to get Black Belt? Yes. Is it harder then before? Debateable.

[Ravenmore]

KS are worthless rite now. All the gear that came from KS30s are trash or replaced by 90. Gil drops are also trash, no one in thier right mind is going to burn 30 seals for D.colth/ingot or O.ingot when these things only sell for a max of 50k and drop out of gold boxs.

I welcomm this change you had to kill to weaks over and over back in the day for items to sell on AH or NPC. BB items were never the main reason that HNM did ground the adj for gear, riddill and D.ring. Yes farming KS is boring but so are trials ather the first time though. Level outside of abyssea is also a bad way to get seals when you got to fight over them with 5 others. Get over it, till this was put up I been tossing KS for a long time now.

[Musahashi]

So, for the few that haven't ever needed to farm KS's, they love it.

Everyone who has farmed KS's, hates it.

Does more need to be said?

If this update goes ahead, I'll be the first to stop playing the game.

[Afrohatch]

If this update goes ahead, I'll be the first to stop playing the game.

You may want to cut your losses now, then.
I've camped kings for a long ass time, and farmed KS to make KS99 orbs back when doing the wyrm one was cool, so I can honestly say I don't really care about the change.

I think that being able to do Faf/Behe/Tuttle on your own time is the biggest perk of this change, instead of making sure to be home at a certain time for first window, praying Aspid pops on said first window, and being disappointed because Adamantoise popped on last window, which only will drop 1 adaman ore.

[Denabond]

So, for the few that haven't ever needed to farm KS's, they love it.

Everyone who has farmed KS's, hates it.

Does more need to be said?

If this update goes ahead, I'll be the first to stop playing the game.
If you think farming up KSs for the best melee belt in the game is too much work, then you seriously shouldn't have it.

[Kindra]

I don't hate the update. There are parts of it that I don't like.

Likes: The forced pop & being able to do it at any time of day.

Dislikes: The number of seals needed, time invested into farming these seals. But I will be honest the Dislikes depend on drop rates.

People have said that now people get 2 shots at the BB items. That was always there, you just had to be willing to do KSNM 99 and the Camps. I will admit that Camps can be a pain but that was still an option.