PVP!

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Originally Posted by Harukusan

The problem with this is lack of interest on most servers. The point of this thread is to A) catch peoples' interest by explaining to them what Ballista is, and not what it's speculated to be by people who have never been to a Ballista match where people took it seriously. B) if there aren't enough people on any particular server to do Ballista regularly, it may get people to migrate to a server where Ballista is more popular. I know I might. If the server merge is still really going to happen (and I hope they do change their mind) I'll have to see what Ragnarok has to offer in terms of their Ballista scene.

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The lack of interest is my point exactly. Players asked for PvP, and they got it. There was even enough hype that SE hosted a "Royal Ramble Ballista Tournament." But after the hype dried up, it became a dead sport. I actually have a wish that unused mini-events are deleted to help free up some space for future updates rather than have it sit there and make them worthwhile again. If they deleted these events for more worthwhile updates, it would benefit the game as a whole. (Covers head for flames)

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The problem with this is lack of interest on most servers.

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This is largely because of the lack of reward. No special items, just a bit of gil, a miniscule amount of EXP, and a title. And an achievement on the Xbox 360.

If you could get some items, even if they were only useful for PvP, interest would be higher.

If they continued to have the tournaments, interest would be higher. The winners in that DID get exclusive items- effectively the rarest in the game.

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If they deleted these events for more worthwhile updates, it would benefit the game as a whole.

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Removing old content does not accellerate development of new content. Ballista requires a miniscule amount of disk space. The two special areas for it are exact copies of existing areas and thus re-use the same textures at no additional space cost.

They should not delete something because it's unpopular. They should do something to make it more popular, or they should just leave it alone, so those people who do like it can still have it.

Why do people do PvP (on PvE servers) in WoW? Because they get stuff for it. It's not the best stuff, so it doesnt harm PvE (and often the stuff they get is specifically for PvP). If you removed the rewards for battlegrounds in WoW, people would stop doing it almost instantly.

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Originally Posted by Harukusan

if there aren't enough people on any particular server to do Ballista regularly, it may get people to migrate to a server where Ballista is more popular.

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Actually, Ballista is still going strong on Lakshmi. I realize that there aren't many valid sources for Ballista updates these days, but I can provide a few. I posted this on the Allakhazam forums a while back, so I'll just copy and paste.

http://war.allakhazam.com/forum.html...20088932908306

"The only reliable NA sources for Ballista are:

* http://www.youtube.com/user/deshi0
* http://vyiv.wordpress.com/

As for JP sources, there used to be several websites for updates, but many of those players have stopped playing. I suppose this one is decent, but I wouldn't place 100% trust in its content:

* http://leban.blog113.fc2.com/
EDIT: The owner quit recently, but it's still an interesting Ballista site to take a look at.


This website used to be good (as it had a relatively updated cross-server Ballista database), but I think the owner, like many other veterans, stopped playing:

* http://www.h6.dion.ne.jp/~oka.zi-4/

If anyone else has other valid recommendations, please feel free to post."

Adding gear rewards specific to PvP on FFXI is a great reward for people who enjoy Ballista, and even Brenner (I guess). But as I mentioned before, adding general rewards that impact the game overall could invite players who would simply exploit it to reap easy treasure. The idea is a bit flawed. If there was a way where it could be inviting to players who aren't fond of Ballista, while making it challenging for them to get what they're after, it might get them to take it more seriously.

By exploitation, my biggest concern would be maybe 2+ people who take turns killing each other and scoring for the sake of building points to purchase rewards with Ballista points, or be instantly rewarded with items through a potential new idea that was brought up before. My solution would be to simply to take them both out! Anyone who has been there can figure out who is playing their part to benefit the team and who is there to screw around and feed the other team free wins.

I'm not much into outright "Utsusemi > Me"... I mean, "player vs. player" combat. I like the concept of the sports they have now, but not so many people actually play the sports-especially not Brenner, the one I most want to play.

Brenner was interesting at first, but it's too complicated. it should have just been simply capture the flag, not "beat up the flag stands and capture multiple flags."

Bumpity! This is a pretty important topic to me, so keep the discussion going! :D Would it really bother anyone if SE introduced rewards you could buy with ballista points, such as unique equipment whose main effects are limited to ballista/brenner only? If no- would it bother you if, further, equipment was obtainable through ballista points which was effective outside of ballista, as long as it wasn't superior to empyrean stuff? The promise of an at least slightly useful reward would really drum up some interest, since no one does anything in this game if it doesnt have a reward =\

It would also be nice to have an automated competition system where you could earn the items from the ballista royale. I'm sure some people would be interested in getting exclusive stuff like that.

They should also make it so you can recall ballista titles you've earned at the title bards.

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Originally Posted by Alhanelem

Bumpity! This is a pretty important topic to me, so keep the discussion going! :D

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This is the only thread I keep up with, all the others are just dumb boring crap. Most of it probably belongs in the "New Player Guidance" Section of the forum.

Bring Ballista back to life!

Ballista is still alive, and the only people who continue to play are those who love the game for what it is. They don't need material rewards as an incentive to play. They play to have fun. Introducing "rewards" for Ballista would only temporarily interest people to play, if any at all. When the experience point reward were added to the Ballista system, it didn't invite any new players. Instead, it was just a nice end-of-the-meal tip for people who already played. Sure, the Ballista Royale (reward) sparked new interest at the time, but the majority of people stopped playing shortly after it ended. If people only play Ballista for some sort of "gain", then that would defeat the purpose of the game.

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and the only people who continue to play are those who love the game for what it is.

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Those people aren't a large enough population for good matches. I'm lucky if I can persuade ONE other person to do it. The incentives are more for people who are less aware of ballista or couldn't be troubled to do the unnecessary license quest (something that should be removed).

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When the experience point reward were added to the Ballista system, it didn't invite any new players.

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That's because it was a piddly amount (500 EXP at 75 cap for an hour's worth of playing), and wasn't based on performance.

If they had a tournament each year, it would have helped keep interest higher.

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If people only play Ballista for some sort of "gain", then that would defeat the purpose of the game.

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No, it wouldn't. In most cases, we seek out fun events and get cool stuff. Ballista is a fun event but you don't get cool stuff. Very few people do anything in the game without some sort of incentive. WotG's end reward was pretty meh, so it didn't spark much interest in completing it, preventing those who were really enjoying the storyline and cutscenes from being easily able to accomplish it. It may sound sad, but some kind of material incentive is needed.