ATTN: Community Reps/Dev Team: PUPs of Vanadiel DEMAND a response on Automaton A.I.!

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while PUP are on the Pet deals more side of things.

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No.

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Originally Posted by Karbuncle

You guys seem to be getting the impression I don't want Maneuvers updated/adjusted. When actually i have a thread in the PUP job forums dedicated to just that.

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Oh no, I know your stance, I was just trying to make what I'm thinking about clear. :O!

[qoute]Erm maneuvers arent a pet ability.

Think of it like this:
Court Jester makes the triangle face (activates Fire Maneuver)
Court Jester does a jig (activates wind maneuver)

Etc, basically we are doing a dance maneuver and its telling our pet how it should be acting.[/quote]

We're not talking about what they represent, we're talking about what they are programmed as. I agree, Maneuvers should be slight gestures and motions, because PUPs are jesters and performers, not fighters.

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Originally Posted by Sparthos

At this point? PUP is more like DRG than BST is.

The master properly buffed will destroy the automaton in damage, like DRG would.

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Yeah, and I think that's stupid. Why should the master be better? The center of the job is the automaton, there's no reason for the master to be better than them -- we're like Monks with pets at that point.

if I want to be a monk, I'll just play as one as avoid the hassle.

choosing when to weapon skill will be amazing. Hopefully we can actually choose the weaponskill also. WE cause so much ruby in abyessa right now. Splitting up timers of enfeebling, NA and cures would solve the cure issue too/almost.

but looks like a lot of this is in the right direction. new +3 lubricant is nice but it won't help much. Maybe the repair recast should be trimmed back a bit like reward is. I see no difference in being able to heal a puppet as much as a bst pet.

I also see nothing about pets receiving buffs,

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Originally Posted by Horadrim

Yeah, and I think that's stupid. Why should the master be better? The center of the job is the automaton, there's no reason for the master to be better than them -- we're like Monks with pets at that point.

if I want to be a monk, I'll just play as one as avoid the hassle.

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The last time the automaton was better than the master, Puppetmaster had C skill h2h capping at 225 @75. Those were dark days for PUP.... dark, dark days indeed.

SE billed PUP as an all-purpose DD. A versatile machine capable of handling a variety of situations. The closest analogue would be Blue Mage.

The problem lay in the faults of the automaton. The healer pet properly tweaked should be able to act as a pocket healer to complement a DD pup or double down on a support PUP but as we see, that isn't exactly what you get.

This is partly why I believe SE chose to improve the master - it's simply easier to do.

Camate,

You keep mentioning that the Dev Team is considering a lot of fixes utilizing new attachments. Are there any plans on increasing the number of attachments that can be installed at one time? Currently we only have 12 attachment slots, but more and more attachments mean we have to continue to either get creative with installing them, or lose some of our favorite abilities and traits outright, or just not use the new ones at all.

The only other job that has to actually lose traits to use others is Blue Mage, and they have significantly more spell slots than our Automatons have attachment slots.

Curing / Status Ailment AI - Would it be possible to have an ability to force the Automaton to Cure like with DRG's new Wyvern Commands? If rewriting the AI is too complex, would this be a happy middle?

Animators - Do these do anything other than a few hidden stats? If not, can they do something more?

Tactical Processor - Adding this comment simply to make it visible because people that don't even play FFXI want to know what this does.

Automaton Arsenal - I'm not sure how easy this would be to implement, but would it be possible to see a plug-and-play weapon system for the Automatons? For example, for 90 levels Sharpshot has used the same crossbow with the same bolts. To add to the customization of our little friends, a stronger / slower crossbow could be attached, or a weaker / faster one.

Thank you for reading and considering my questions and ideas.

I agree, some more slots, maybe as level increases, would be nice, much like blu points.

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Originally Posted by Sparthos

The last time the automaton was better than the master, Puppetmaster had C skill h2h capping at 225 @75. Those were dark days for PUP.... dark, dark days indeed.

SE billed PUP as an all-purpose DD. A versatile machine capable of handling a variety of situations. The closest analogue would be Blue Mage.

The problem lay in the faults of the automaton. The healer pet properly tweaked should be able to act as a pocket healer to complement a DD pup or double down on a support PUP but as we see, that isn't exactly what you get.

This is partly why I believe SE chose to improve the master - it's simply easier to do.

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I agree -- but at the end of the day those problems are quite simply a lack of control.

Why can't we tell our automaton to focus on healing someone else? Why can't maneuvers be commands that suggest actions towards specific targets? Light Maneuver the Paladin (Casts a Cure or Erase, or Flashes the mob targeting the PLD), Dark Maneuver the mob (dispels or drain/aspirs the mobs).

Suggestive control, however indirect, is still control. And while the control we have now is suggestive as well, its just not potent enough to get the job done.

Finally - some good info.

Something that was said more than once: let animators be throwing weapons. We have throwing skill. We always need to equip them, taking away the chance of putting other stuff in ammo slot. Combine the two things and give them some utility!

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Originally Posted by Camate

First we will be revamping attachments that need adjustments. After that we will take a look at the balance and look into this.

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A major reduction to the drum magazine would be enough:

Wind x0 = 12 seconds

Wind x1 = 9 seconds

Wind x2 = 6 seconds

Wind x3 = 4 seconds

Wind x3 would rarely be up considering overloads.

Another fix would be to take out the melee attacks entirely to speed up ranged attacks as mentioned.