[DEV1010] (Discussion)

[Karbuncle]

We've seen the topic!

Now, This make me giggle, Thinking about how hard its going to be for new players to go to Beauc/Xarc in the Present.

Zeruhn Mines caught me off guard, I wonder if it will interfere with the Bastok Rank 1 Mission where you need to go there.

I wonder if they'll be secluded?

Just catches me off guard, I wonder if "Cater to high level players" we'll end up seeing Enemies within the range of 98+ (new Exp mobs for 95 cap).

My first reaction though is how hilarious it'll be having to sneak/invisi in these zones now at level 90+ Depending on monster placement >.>

[Jenenibui]

Man this is so awesome, now people will be able to ks farm! It's like Dom ops hahahahaha!!!! This update is going to rock!

[Runespider]

It's as always a little vague, so it's basically just FoV for high level giving XP/tabs/gil? I hope they will revamp the use for tabs and give some decent rewards.

I guess if it's comparable to dominion it will tease people away a little from aby but seems nothing really new, infact dominion would still be better for most given how powerful people are inside aby.

[Karbuncle]

Well, They did mention "Rewards" for the Tabs (could be the buff system), but also that something along the lines of "Killing in the same area you will find yourself able to slay enemies more easily" or something like that, Implying multiple people do same OP = Easier Enemies to kill or something like that. Probably Buffs for yourself if under a Regime?

[Tsuneo]

Shouldn't the title be Dev1011 or Dev1012? This line has me confused though "By undertaking multiple training regimes in the same area, players will find themselves able to fell enemies with greater ease and become eligible for more lavish rewards." I don't remember anything like that in FoV.

[Karbuncle]

I can Apparently Change the Title of the thread, But only on the inside.

I had two Tabs open (One 1012, one 1011), I closed 12 and had 11 open when i made this thread, I couldn't recall which one i had just read so i assumed 10.

Oh Well.

[Zyeriis]

Well the title of the thread is relatively irrelevant as that is not the actual proper way to "tag" your thread. I'm going to take the liberty to add the tag for you (which you can find at the bottom of any page in the thread).

Anyway, this is relatively interesting, it's too bad that like almost every thing they announce, it's extremely vague.
Grounds of Valor just sounds like Fields of Valor being applied to zones that have treasure chests and coffers (dungeons). They didn't go into detail enough to warrant any other thought about this to justify the change in name. Which is odd. Maybe we'll see "Regime Chains" as a counter to the Mob-Type chains in Abyssea

Edit: Or another form of "lights" that increase drop rates of caskets from mobs in those areas? Of course, they'll actually have to add things that are useful to the possible items in those caskets but still, worthy enough for speculation.

[Runespider]

For something liek this i don't understand why they don't go all out with the details, it's hard to get excited about something that on the surface is just FoV with a new name.

[Karbuncle]

For something liek this i don't understand why they don't go all out with the details, it's hard to get excited about something that on the surface is just FoV with a new name.

Yah it makes no sense.

I mean, They want to keep our attention, These update notes feel more like a "tease" than anything else. They give barely any Info :\

They need to tell us what the buffs will be, The Rewards, Etc -.- Maybe not all the Rewards, but they could tell us if its Shitty Foods like FoV, R/EX Armors? Temp items? something.

[thefinalrune]

Thinking about how hard its going to be for new players to go to Beauc/Xarc in the Present.
I imagine the new mobs will be like the ones added to the CoP areas, non-hostile. The birds added to the Tavnazia areas and the Spiders in the Aqueducts/Sacrarium are all non-aggro mobs. Surely SE wouldn't suddenly added aggro-ing high level dangerous mobs to low level areas right? New players don't need that kind of discouragement.

[Rexen]

The system sounds like it could be good but I can't help but be a little disheartened that they seem to be completly disregarding Aht Uhrgan areas. I've wanted some sort of Fields of Valor system in those zones for a long time, I think the zones are some of the best in the game and right now they're the most unpopular, this will only really add to that. It'd be nice to have people level there again, or have a bigger incentive to solo, so that I could get some IS without relying on the level 3 Besieged which take place since hardly anyone leaves Abyssea now.

[Sotek]

Don't dungeon mobs take 16 minutes to respawn? Yeah, I can see this ending well. Deep down inside me I've always wanted to stare at the walls of ten year old zones while waiting for mobs to spawn. It was the part of me that died when I learned I could go to bed and still get EXP in Abyssea.

[Neika]

They added that similar updates will be happening in the future, so maybe Aht Uhrgan areas will see something like this later. I was kinda hoping for FoV in Korroloka Tunnel myself. Or Beadeaux! I love those zones!

[Septimus]

I try not to be too negative or expect too much out of update notes, but seriously? It's just Fields of Valor with an M. Night Shamalamadingdong twist to it. It seems pointless to give it a new name even if the "fell enemies with greater ease" and "lavish rewards" are worthwhile. (Who else is expecting 3 extra gil, terrible medicines/useless crafting materials, and mind-bogglingly worthless Evoliths as the "lavish rewards"? I am begging S-E to prove me wrong, please. Make the rewards awesome just to spite me.) How about an improved skill up rate when you are killing the correct mobs? (Because, I hate to break it to you guys, skill ups are still horrible.)

I'm not going to shout "RUINED FOREVER!" because of this update note (there is a lot of good stuff in the previous update notes and a plenty of them), but this is just so much wasted potential for something that is essentially in the game already. And also, if you are going to advertise new monsters in old zones, please never use a picture of an Opo-opo, one of the worst classes of monsters in the game that no one wants to fight ever. (Whirl Claw! Weeeeee!) It would be nearly as bad as using a picture of a Tarus with its eyes glowing red from Mortal Ray with the caption "Super Happy Fun Times Await Players in 'Doom of Valor'."

[Karbuncle]

I try not to be too negative or expect too much out of update notes, but seriously? It's just Fields of Valor with an M. Night Shamalamadingdong twist to it. It seems pointless to give it a new name even if the "fell enemies with greater ease" and "lavish rewards" are worthwhile. (Who else is expecting 3 extra gil, terrible medicines/useless crafting materials, and mind-bogglingly worthless Evoliths as the "lavish rewards"? I am begging S-E to prove me wrong, please. Make the rewards awesome just to spite me.) How about an improved skill up rate when you are killing the correct mobs? (Because, I hate to break it to you guys, skill ups are still horrible.)

I'm not going to shout "RUINED FOREVER!" because of this update note (there is a lot of good stuff in the previous update notes and a plenty of them), but this is just so much wasted potential for something that is essentially in the game already. And also, if you are going to advertise new monsters in old zones, please never use a picture of an Opo-opo, one of the worst classes of monsters in the game that no one wants to fight ever. (Whirl Claw! Weeeeee!) It would be nearly as bad as using a picture of a Tarus with its eyes glowing red from Mortal Ray with the caption "Super Happy Fun Times Await Players in 'Doom of Valor'."

Seriously, F**k Opo-Opo.

DRK-Like Attack, THF-Like Evasion, PLD-like DEF, and DRG-like Accuracy. Lord i hate those mobs so much. Satan little things.

[Juxtaposition]

Dear SE,

Please tell how this system is different enough from Fields of Valor to warrant the name change to Grounds of Valor.

TIA,
~Juxt

[Tsuneo]

The only thing that really seemed different was "By undertaking multiple training regimes in the same area, players will find themselves able to fell enemies with greater ease and become eligible for more lavish rewards.", but even then that seemed incredibly vague.

[Karbuncle]

The only thing that really seemed different was "By undertaking multiple training regimes in the same area, players will find themselves able to fell enemies with greater ease and become eligible for more lavish rewards.", but even then that seemed incredibly vague.

Duh, Its Tab Refresh, Tabs Regen, Tabs Reraise, Dried Meat/etc! Ultra Lavish Content bro !

On a Serious note, I have my doubts about the system, but I don't have a lot to work on other than its Exp related and might have some decent rewards to it.

So i can hope.

Also, With all those new zones with Treasure Caskets, Theres a good chance those zones will also see new R/EX Equipment from Treasure Caskets.

[Kraggy]

I really hope SE think about this and do it carefully.

Many of those areas are used by 'leveling up' content: city missions, AF coffers, Genkai drops, Kazham airship keys, quests, etc.

By making them into playgrounds for bored 90s+ they could easily make the original content those areas contain inaccessible or highly dependent on 'high level help' to complete for those still not in the 90s.

[thefinalrune]

Dear SE,

Please tell how this system is different enough from Fields of Valor to warrant the name change to Grounds of Valor.

TIA,
~Juxt
This, please SE.



P.S. Awesome win sauce, you're still using the sig I made for you Juxt!
- Surazal formally of Odin now Razale on Siren.

[Riggs]

i for one an very annoyed with this change, what is the point of increasing player level to 99 if all your going to then do in increase the monster level proportionally.

You may as well have just left us all at 75 and saved us the hours of xping we have had to do.

[Karbuncle]

i for one an very annoyed with this change, what is the point of increasing player level to 99 if all your going to then do in increase the monster level proportionally.

You may as well have just left us all at 75 and saved us the hours of xping we have had to do.

They're not increasing all the mobs level range, They're adding new Enemies that level 95~99 players can exp on out-side of Abyssea.

[Riggs]

They're not increasing all the mobs level range, They're adding new Enemies that level 95~99 players can exp on out-side of Abyssea.

Its the same difference, areas where we could operate freely will now have agroing mobs, this is a lazy and money saving update by SE, they are refusing to spend money on developers to create new zone's and do not care that this will horribley affect players that currently use these zones.

I again say to SE leave the current zones and monster levels alone, stop cheaping out and create new areas if you want to add higher level mobs

[Karbuncle]

Its the same difference, areas where we could operate freely will now have agroing mobs, this is a lazy and money saving update by SE, they are refusing to spend money on developers to create new zone's and do not care that this will horribley affect players that currently use these zones.

I again say to SE leave the current zones and monster levels alone, stop cheaping out and create new areas if you want to add higher level mobs

I think the last time they added monsters this way, None of them were Aggressive except in zones where mobs were already Aggressive at that level.

I.E the birds in Misar Did not aggro, The Spiders in the Aquaducts didn't aggro. however the eyes In Uleg Did.

Theres a good chance the majority/all of the mobs that are added this update will be non-aggressive. If not, I'll be a little upset like you are.

[Tsuneo]

The new mobs in the Promyvion areas were aggressive, but they were easy to avoid. I think if they are aggressive it will be similar.

[Karbuncle]

Indeed, My guess is if they are aggressive, They'll be simple to avoid and out of the way.

If not, Its pretty stupid to add a bunch of Aggressive level ~99 mobs in a zone originally designed for level ~5-50 players.

[Vold]

I'm calling it now - lavish rewards = new "evoliths" to aug old end game gear via Synergy.

[Octaviane]

I imagine the new mobs will be like the ones added to the CoP areas, non-hostile. The birds added to the Tavnazia areas and the Spiders in the Aqueducts/Sacrarium are all non-aggro mobs. Surely SE wouldn't suddenly added aggro-ing high level dangerous mobs to low level areas right? New players don't need that kind of discouragement.

The birds in Misereaux detect by sound as do the spiders in the Aqueducts and Sacrarium, so, if you don't have sneak up and are unfortunate enough to run into them they are hostile. :)

Remember how nervous we all were making the run to Beaucedine>>>Xarcabard to get the crystal at low levels? I think it would be fun to add a few surprises to Ranguemont Pass, Beaucedine Glacier and Xarcabard and other areas.

[Frapp]

I was thinking about some of the developments this morning, trying to figure out how they could possibly shove more monsters into Zeruhn Mines.

One of the prevailing schools of thought is that adding zones is becoming increasingly difficult because of various limitations. However, who said they couldn't expand an existing zone? Rewriting a zone wouldn't technically take up another "zone slot" because it's already taken up by the zone.

But what good would that do? What could possibly be done with an expansion to existing zones? Voidwatch.

Hear me out on this one, and here's some evidence I could surmise from previous Dev Threads:

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/4937
The Road Map thread - In it there is a picture of some evil looking bird thing swooping down at the camera in what looks like Dangruf Wadi (one of the zones in Dev 1011 and Dev 1012)

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/4925-dev1007-Voidwatch-Emerges!
Dev 1007, Voidwatch announcement. If you look closely at background, what do you see? I see a bat in the lower right corner under the moon-shaped axe. Also, the background seems like the picture could have been taken in Horutoto (again, announced 1011, 1012).

Now, these are the same zones getting the Grounds of Valor / Treasure Casket revamp. What if everything fell into place, and instead of being just a boring do-over of existing content, the Ground of Valor and Treasure Casket system ended up being something similar to Dominion? Do GoV to kill new high level monsters, get pop items from Caskets, and go fight the Voidwatch monsters using said pop items.

Now, I'll be the first to admit that it is a bit of a stretch, but how cool would it be if everything fit together like that?

[Tsuneo]

The birds in Misereaux detect by sound as do the spiders in the Aqueducts and Sacrarium, so, if you don't have sneak up and are unfortunate enough to run into them they are hostile. :)

Actually neither of them are aggressive.

[Catsby]

Let's see...

teleport from Jeuno directly to about a hundred free exp camps or bust my ass running through zones to an old school exp camp that may or may not be taken.

Hopefully completing a regime rewards you with more than a couple thousand exp or this is going to be a tremendous waste of time. Also, I hope those floating books are close to the exp mobs as well. that's more wasted time jogging around and being pissed at your party for not bringing sneak/invis stuff.

[Octaviane]

Actually neither of them are aggressive.

I didn't say aggressive, I said hostile if you don't have sneak up.

[Tsuneo]

I didn't say aggressive, I said hostile if you don't have sneak up.
Um... That's the same thing. They won't attack you unless you attack them or link them.

[Glamdring]

I've got ranger AF weap coming up, RP is gonna be... interesting. Wonder how many of my lvl 90 buddies I'm gonna need as babysitters? But as a guy who prefers to battle outside Abyssea the new content is welcome. And paladin/bard/corsair/ranger should be over-joyed, they will get their roles back!

Not to mention being able to skill with martial master! JOY!!!

[Octaviane]

I am in favor of this idea since I enjoy doing things outside of Abyssea.

[Felren]

I don't understand why they keep adding things like FoV books, Dom ops, etc. Interacting with an npc is the most painful thing to do in FFXI. It takes so long to get through the dialog and also takes so long for the dialog to load. I used to play this game on dialup years ago, and I thought that was the reason communicating with NPCs was so slow. But low and behold, I get on a fast connection and its still painfully slow and tedious to things like get a FoV regime.

The only way I see a system like this not being painful is if they make the pages (or whatever they are for this system) repeat themselves. What I mean is after you complete lets say a five monster page, if it would automatically give you a new page for those monsters without having to go back to the NPC to go through the dialog yet again and pick the one page you want, it would give a much nicer flow to exping.

As it stands right now, Dom Ops is the least fun I've ever had exping in FFXI. This isn't because its slow or anything, its actually insanely fast. I hate it because it is such a pain to go have to fight through dialog to set a page ~10-20 times an hour. I much rather be fighting a monster still than have to go back and forth between a camp and a book.

[Catsby]

I don't understand why they keep adding things like FoV books, Dom ops, etc. Interacting with an npc is the most painful thing to do in FFXI. It takes so long to get through the dialog and also takes so long for the dialog to load. I used to play this game on dialup years ago, and I thought that was the reason communicating with NPCs was so slow. But low and behold, I get on a fast connection and its still painfully slow and tedious to things like get a FoV regime.

The only way I see a system like this not being painful is if they make the pages (or whatever they are for this system) repeat themselves. What I mean is after you complete lets say a five monster page, if it would automatically give you a new page for those monsters without having to go back to the NPC to go through the dialog yet again and pick the one page you want, it would give a much nicer flow to exping.

As it stands right now, Dom Ops is the least fun I've ever had exping in FFXI. This isn't because its slow or anything, its actually insanely fast. I hate it because it is such a pain to go have to fight through dialog to set a page ~10-20 times an hour. I much rather be fighting a monster still than have to go back and forth between a camp and a book.

Welcome to usability engineering. This game fails at it.

[Kalebon]

Monks are just a good a tank as a PLD, just no one levels the guard skill or allows a monk to tank in level up parties to do so. and saying Guard skill sucks is the same as saying Shield skill, and parrying skill sucks.

But this is interesting to see how much it can pull people who like the older style of working for their levels instead of leeching from 30 to current cap for their jobs. Would like to see more of the mid range gear show back up on the AH...

Also wondering what the rewards are, because just spending tabs on buffs (30 min to an hour duration) and a Teleport to the outpost warper in your nation kind of makes your tabs just stockpile tabs currently.

[Kervina]

I was just looking through the JP thread on this topic in Google Translate and came across this post from Foxclon:

Original text:
早速のフィードバックありがとうございます。

今回の配置変更が行われるエリアでは、ノートリアスモンスターを除き、再出現時間が一律5分となる予定です。そのため、抽選タイプのNMに限り、相対的に出現チャンスも増えることになります。

ただし、NMごとに設定されている再抽選が開始されるまでの時間は従来通りの設定になっています。

Here is the relevant part read through the translate:

The deployment change is made in this area, except for Notorious, the flat rate of 5 min by time will re-emerge. Therefore, the only type of lottery NM, will also increase relative appearance opportunities.

Seems like mobs in the affected areas will be put on a 5 min repop timer after the update.

[Airget]

SE likes to do things in stages, this first tier of GoV is in preparation for Voidwalker, at least in my opinion. If you think about it Voidwalkers are suppose to be in zones that are rarely gone to now so basically we can speculate that Voidwalkers will appear in 15 zones. The reason SE is revitalizing these zones is because with the current game environment those zones are dead, and while they may be old they hold a lot of space to actually tweak around monster placement.

Odds are I'm thinking that with GoV the points we get might be used to initiate the Voidwalker NM fights. Based on how SE has done things they'll most likely do GoV -Main continent-, -RoZ- zones, -CoP- zones, -ToAU- zones and -WoTG- zones. That gives them 4 other chances to beef up areas with more content so most likely the lv cap for 90-95 will find new mobs in Cauldron, Ugg Temple, Korro tunnel, Possibly Sky, etc.

Honestly though if you were to go to those zones and explore every inch of space they have you would see that there is more then enough room to add more mobs, and why shouldn't they it's not like the mobs themselves are even being fought anymore. If they were to remove 40% of the mobs in the zones and replace them with GoV mobs I doubt it would make any difference.

[Sparthos]

I was wondering about that since current dungeon repops would have players waiting for some time.

[Rambus]

We've seen the topic!

Now, This make me giggle, Thinking about how hard its going to be for new players to go to Beauc/Xarc in the Present.

Zeruhn Mines caught me off guard, I wonder if it will interfere with the Bastok Rank 1 Mission where you need to go there.

I wonder if they'll be secluded?

Just catches me off guard, I wonder if "Cater to high level players" we'll end up seeing Enemies within the range of 98+ (new Exp mobs for 95 cap).

My first reaction though is how hilarious it'll be having to sneak/invisi in these zones now at level 90+ Depending on monster placement >.>

the update notes are vague and confusing, and I do wonder if it does make it harder for lower level people to expore like that like getting SMN unlocked so the Ranguemont Pass seems crazy.

what about lower level player questing RSE?

as is i think SE is off thier rocker with these notes.

plus dungeon repop timers are way longer then outside, did SE forget about this???

[Supersun]

plus dungeon repop timers are way longer then outside, did SE forget about this???


I was just looking through the JP thread on this topic in Google Translate and came across this post from Foxclon:

Original text:
早速のフィードバックありがとうございます。

今回の配置変更が行われるエリアでは、ノートリアスモンスターを除き、再出現時間が一律5分となる予定です。そのため、抽選タイプのNMに限り、相対的に出現チャンスも増えることになります。

ただし、NMごとに設定されている再抽選が開始されるまでの時間は従来通りの設定になっています。

Here is the relevant part read through the translate:

The deployment change is made in this area, except for Notorious, the flat rate of 5 min by time will re-emerge. Therefore, the only type of lottery NM, will also increase relative appearance opportunities.

Seems like mobs in the affected areas will be put on a 5 min repop timer after the update.

You're welcome :P

[Rambus]

forgot to bring up the point the title is dev1010, there a way to change that?

[Windblade]

I hate this... I still like some of those mobs in caves and dungeons for farming and I don't want to have to fight for my life just to get the items I want, like scorpion claws in the Crawler's Nest. Why can't people just fight the high-level monsters where they are now instead of messing up all the low-level areas??? My gosh, Abyssea, and Wings of the Goddess are both catering to high level players as it is...

Or why not just raise the level of monsters for players who have a page active? If I go traipsing through an area, I don't want to be suddenly aggroed where I used to be safe. This update is going to suck because I know they'll make these changes even if it makes some people mad. But *I* still like low level activities.

Anyway, if you're going to ruin the game like this, why not give each player his own copy of a "field manual" and "dungeon manual" to carry around and use instead of having to run to a specific location? That would sure make things a lot simpler. Also, why not add a sixth page that'll let us kill any monsters we want to kill in the zone (maybe 10-12 of them) until we get a bonus calculated by WHAT we killed. Why? I don't want to have to kill Sabotenders in Altepa just to complete a page, but the other monsters on the page aren't bad.

[Zumi]

Seems like their deleting part of classic FFXI to add this.

[Karbuncle]

So people are complaining old Areas are never used. SE adds new content to the old areas to breathe life back into them, and we get:

"What? Crappy useless zones getting new mobs, content, and life breathed into them? WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH MY NOSTALGIA QQ"

I should just put this in my sig, But really, People will complain about anything. Those zones were empty areas wasting Memory on the Servers, I'm happy they're breathing new life into it by adding these high level Enemies (That are likely going to be non-aggressive) and Grounds of Valor. They also appear to be reducing the Respawn time in dungeons to 5 minutes like out-side spawns (quoted somewhere in another thread).

I think this is a Positive. I'm sure SE will make sure the Enemies are either Non-aggressive, or do not interfere with Quest areas. They usually think stuff like this out. Look at the past mobs added this way, They were Non-aggressive in places safe to 75's, and only aggressive in areas where mobs were already aggroing you (Like the Eyeballs in uleg Range)

I think this will be nice, nostalgia is never a reason to let stale zones go to waste. They already said the new enemies would basically be added in the backest-pits of the zone, Front-monsters remain the same.

[Septimus]

So people are complaining old Areas are never used. SE adds new content to the old areas to breathe life back into them, and we get:

"What? Crappy useless zones getting new mobs, content, and life breathed into them? WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH MY NOSTALGIA QQ"

I should just put this in my sig, But really, People will complain about anything. Those zones were empty areas wasting Memory on the Servers, I'm happy they're breathing new life into it by adding these high level Enemies (That are likely going to be non-aggressive) and Grounds of Valor. They also appear to be reducing the Respawn time in dungeons to 5 minutes like out-side spawns (quoted somewhere in another thread).

I think this is a Positive. I'm sure SE will make sure the Enemies are either Non-aggressive, or do not interfere with Quest areas. They usually think stuff like this out. Look at the past mobs added this way, They were Non-aggressive in places safe to 75's, and only aggressive in areas where mobs were already aggroing you (Like the Eyeballs in uleg Range)

I think this will be nice, nostalgia is never a reason to let stale zones go to waste. They already said the new enemies would basically be added in the backest-pits of the zone, Front-monsters remain the same.

Actually, the "backest-pits of the zone" part is why I am a little concerned about the whole concept of Grounds of Valor. Think about how long it takes to get anywhere in this game, for example Dangurf Wadi. Based off of the track-record from Fields of Valor, they are probably going to have a book at the entrance to South Gustaberg and North Gustaberg. Now supposed one of the camps is at G-7, fairly in the middle of the zone- after so many mobs you are going to have to stop what you are doing to run all the way through the winding, labyrinthine tunnels to one of the exits, or you are just going to escape and waste those ever-so "lavish rewards" for the sake of expediency. Or you will just go back to Abyssea and do Dominion Ops there because it will be faster and easier. (And the bonuses are going to have to be truly awe-inspiring to get people out of Abyssea for that final 434,000 XP to 99. 20-25k per hour isn't going to cut it anymore.)

Only certain Dominion Ops are done in XP parties, and that is because the mobs are right by the Sergeants. It is completely illogical to stop XPing to pick up an XP bonus since chances are you are going to make less XP because of a long commute. Marids in Abyssea - Uleguerand have an awesome XP bonus, but because you have to hoof it and use confluxes to get the Ops, no one ever bothers. The best way to combat this would be to sprinkle dozens of Ground Tombs all around the zones, it would be lovely but highly unlikely.

Also, more practically than the Nostalgia Filter, I am also concerned that several good spots for Magian trials (specifically in the Crawler's Nest, The Eldieme Necropolis, Bostaunieux Oubliette, and Toraimarai Canal) are going to be thoroughly trashed as a result of mob placement. If there are going to be 5 minute repops (sorry, I don't trust Google translations) this may help if certain mobs aren't just removed, but some confirmation would be lovely.

[Miiyo]

cheers for "Ascent items" and the ways to obtain them. Forces you to go take part in other areas if you happen to be low on the currency from these areas.

18 different areas and it seems like there's a general progression when it states "Voidwatch Officer NPCs will assign you an operation based on your current progress." Sounds like a good bit to do.

"At the successful completion of battle, a mysterious “riftworn pyxis” will manifest from the planar rift and remain for three minutes. All combatants may examine the pyxis, the contents of which will differ for each person." Pure win.

My only worry or concern lies in the seperation of countries. I hope we don't end up having the seperation of countries like there is in "Fiat Lux."

Looking forward to this addition ^.^

[Miiyo]

Seems like their deleting part of classic FFXI to add this.

Even if they were, "classic FFXI" is pretty abandoned as it is. Might as well use the space for something more people will do.

[Karbuncle]

Actually, the "backest-pits of the zone" part is why I am a little concerned about the whole concept of Grounds of Valor. Think about how long it takes to get anywhere in this game, for example Dangurf Wadi. Based off of the track-record from Fields of Valor, they are probably going to have a book at the entrance to South Gustaberg and North Gustaberg. Now supposed one of the camps is at G-7, fairly in the middle of the zone- after so many mobs you are going to have to stop what you are doing to run all the way through the winding, labyrinthine tunnels to one of the exits, or you are just going to escape and waste those ever-so "lavish rewards" for the sake of expediency. Or you will just go back to Abyssea and do Dominion Ops there because it will be faster and easier. (And the bonuses are going to have to be truly awe-inspiring to get people out of Abyssea for that final 434,000 XP to 99. 20-25k per hour isn't going to cut it anymore.)

Only certain Dominion Ops are done in XP parties, and that is because the mobs are right by the Sergeants. It is completely illogical to stop XPing to pick up an XP bonus since chances are you are going to make less XP because of a long commute. Marids in Abyssea - Uleguerand have an awesome XP bonus, but because you have to hoof it and use confluxes to get the Ops, no one ever bothers. The best way to combat this would be to sprinkle dozens of Ground Tombs all around the zones, it would be lovely but highly unlikely.

Also, more practically than the Nostalgia Filter, I am also concerned that several good spots for Magian trials (specifically in the Crawler's Nest, The Eldieme Necropolis, Bostaunieux Oubliette, and Toraimarai Canal) are going to be thoroughly trashed as a result of mob placement. If there are going to be 5 minute repops (sorry, I don't trust Google translations) this may help if certain mobs aren't just removed, but some confirmation would be lovely.

On the topic of getting to hard to go places, In the future update with the new "Voidwatch system", they're going to allow you to teleport to a lot of the areas under void-watch, While it won't cover all of them, It makes it easier in some way.

So you can rest that concern a little :)

[Airget]

It's kind of amusing how people talk about the nostalgia of these areas but numbers speak louder then memories. From the Bahamut server these are the current occupancy for the following zones being changed.
Ranguemont Pass------0
Bostaunieux Oubliette--1
Toraimarai Canal ------1
Zeruhn Mines ---------0
King Ranperre's Tomb -0
Dangruf Wadi ---------0
Inner Horutoto Ruins --1
Ordelle’s Caves -------4 (Possibly Brown belt NM)
Outer Horutoto Ruins --0
The Eldieme Necropolis-2
Gusgen Mines ---------0
Crawlers’ Nest --------6 (O_o actually an xp pty here)
Maze of Shakhrami ----0
Garlaige Citadel -------7 (Magian Trial 7)
Fei’Yin----------------0

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Nostalgia does have it's place but if zones and mobs aren't being used anymore then for the best they should be changed to accommodate for the games environment. New players still have a variety of options to xp at and with GoV/Void being introduced this VU it adds a lot of variety for high levels to play with. Though it's still unknown as to how much the mob difficulty will increase in those zones it could very well be 30-90 or 75+. I would be highly amused if I were to zone into Zeruhn Mines at lv 90 and see an EP mob in there lol.

Overall though this whole change doesn't really hurt new players, they are doing there best to balance it out and overall it shows why they decided to eliminate xp loss up to lv 30. In exchange for revitalizing old zones that may at times be used to gain xp at lower levels they took off xp loss for those that may accidentally target a mob they were unaware would be that strong.

[azjazo]

As long as mobs dont interfere and make more dificut to get some quests done, like putting agressive high level mobs around a ??? previously safe, and dont mess with the low level party camps, go for it!

[Mirage]

I don't think they said anything about if these new mobs will be aggressive or not. Also, they might not spawn where most lowbies have business to do.