Sortie - Owning a tier 4 Prime weapon punishes players

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Yoji_Fujito

Prime Weapons are a type of end game content, and as such the final form of these weapons are intended to be stronger than other weapons found in the game.

---

Prime Weapons has Dethroned REMA Weapons. I'm so disappointed :/

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by leia

Prime Weapons has Dethroned REMA Weapons. I'm so disappointed :/

---

I don't think they "Dethroned", they are good, and yes even strong (borderline OP) but anyone who has made multiple REMAs know they all have their own place.

Look at the Guns, Earp is good and might beat out Fomalhaut as a physical damage WS gun, but "Store TP"+10 "TP Bonus"+500 is still strong, and good when you need quick strong skill chains. Death Penalty will still be top tier for Leaden, and I'm sure Armageddon will be best for Wildfire spam.

No REMA even comes close to Yagrush and what it can do for a whm.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mrxi

I think everyone is over reacting. Lets be honest, the bosses were way to easy. People were killing all 9 and getting 90k average. I don't think Absorb-TP was ever the intended strat so I welcome these changes and I am fairly sure someone will find a new Aminon strat and continue to cheese the rest with Gravity 2 and bolster indi-gravity.

I can see why people would want to trade in starsone cases ect since already have stacks of them saved.

I feel like people keep saying no additional reward but totally forget about the weapon they can now use out of sortie.

Give it a few months if the game has not fell off the face of the earth in despair by then, someone will figure it out.

---

Average is far from 90k.
A high end group runs 55-60k, in my experience consisting of running 8 floor bosses or aminon +2/3 lower bosses.
A mid-tier group is 35-45k, depending on experience and risk
a casual or pick-up is around 20-35k, depending on route and strategies used.

Then there is Mischief's group, who could do 90k prior to being nerfed by T4. I would not call this close to average.

There is some misconception that these weapons are powerful. From what we have seen so far they aren't anything special. Unless stage 5 is massive improvement over stage 4 a lot of them will just be situationally good but not manditory. The weaponskills tied to the weapons preform poorly at low tp values and a lot of the one hand weaponskills damage is underperforming compare to old options. The new song will be great in many situations but still isn't game breaking.

The scythe has extra utility (hp / mp drain) which adds a lot of value to it but the other weapons simply don't. I was hoping these weapon's would offering something special but most seem to miss the mark. The club seems like the weapon the missed the mark the most. Geo have problems using it because geomancy potency and swapping weapons is a hassle. Whm lose a weapon to wake themselves up when they upgrade to stage 3. Whm also like to use yagrush a lot for area status removal and would often lose prime aftermath. Maybe if geo got a prime bell instead of the weapon also matched idris geomancy potency it could good.

The weaponskills have so many properties which makes them incredibly difficult to use in sortie when these bosses have changing weaknesses and could cause group wipes just from using these weapons.

Personally, i think mostly of sortie concept is completly wrong.

- 1 hour content is way too much for the time you need to complete 1 (one weapon). 1 hour means if you have a static and dont need to shout and all are punctual. So never 1 hour.
1 hour per day, * 40k gally (if you able to do to that) = 40000 / 8.500.000 = 213 runs means 213 days behind sortie to make 1 weapon

- Excessive running left and right ..... content it self, shard key bosses is 30/40 mins, why should i run/rush/stress all the event running and keep my pace up for 1 entire hour.

- rewards : no gil no exp , very ridicoulus +1/+2 drop rate, only gally and you need experienced players to make good runs and be consistent over and over.

This for me is too much, not sure if i wanna keep going.

I would suggest to SE to make an amplifier boost like they did for odyssey. To buy said amplifier it would be X amount of the items, IE sapphires, starstones, eikondrites, octahedrites, hexahedrites. Up to SE on the conversion amounts but I would think it would be in relation to the rarity of the drops.

Or they could implement the conversion of earrings, ie X amount of nq can convert to a +1, x amount of +1 would convert to a +2. Augments would still be random.

This would at least give other incentives to go on runs, other than gallimaufry.

Sheol: Gaol was added 1/12/21 and amps were added 5 months later on 5/10/21.

Sortie was added 8/2022 so in that respect it has been longer than it was released for them to add some kindof boost, unless they are going by when they added the last change to sortie on 5/24/23, which would indicate October at earliest for somekind of boost item if they follow same 5 month schedule.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Yoji_Fujito

Prime Weapons are a type of end game content, and as such the final form of these weapons are intended to be stronger than other weapons found in the game.

---

As has been mentioned before, this comment is NOT true. Many of the Prime weapons (mostly the one-handed weapons) are quite weak. The Naegling, which can be obtained by a relatively new player from a single day of farming Ambuscade, is stronger than an "ultimate" Prime weapon that takes almost a year of daily Sortie. If SE is going to make us work this hard, the reward should be worth it.

Right now, many of the Prime weapons are merely useless trophies. This, combined with the unreasonable requirements for obtaining a Prime weapon will surely drive players away from Sortie, and the game as a whole.

I've reached the point where I'm now stacking sapphires & eikondrites (over 99). We also need gal for empyrean+3 gear too, being 70k per slot. The players available for sortie varies per server & time of day. I solo/duo sortie most of the time getting 5-7k per run so I'm now feeling there's no point for me with the prime weapons at all, until SE does something about this.

Why SE focuses on the elite players & not the rest of the community, I don't know. From looking at Fujito's response, he doesn't have sight of at what stage of the game a lot of players are at. Luckily, i have a load of old quests outstanding, while the elites have completed most of them. He's also forgotten we're now 30-40 year olds. We're no longer kids & our gaming time is now very limited (family, work, etc.)

hi everyone :)
Im a JP player in Odin.

Thanks to one EN player dropping two bombs, the JP forum is revitalizing.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Vonima2

ソーティ・イヤリングのドロップ率とジョブ分布に関する明確化を求めます。

---

>Please disclose the rate of getting chance and the percentage of each job earring.

Thanks for the interesting data.

I'm a little concerned about you said this in factor 4.
"4. HQケースを50個開けると、+1イヤリングを入手する確率は約90％、+2イヤリングを入手する確率は約9％となります。"
the literal translation is,
”4. if you open 50 HQ cases, you have about a 90% chance of getting a +1 earring and about a 9% chance of getting a +2 earring."

however, if 4. is "expected value of if we open 50 HQ cases"
we get about a 10% chance of getting only +1 earrings and about a 90% chance of getting at least one +2 earring, correct?
0.956^50＝0.1054... and 1-0.1054=about 90%

as for the disparity per job, I was curious too, so I did some estimating and found that if the denominator is 1,024...

22*2 HQ earrings for 2 slots each job
44/1024 = 0.0429... about under 4.3% get some kind of HQ earring
2/1024 = 0.0195... Individually, about 0.2% each.

Assuming the remaining 980 slots are allocated to NQ earrings
54/1024 = 0.0527... About 5.3% are NQ earrings for standard jobs
41/1024 = 0.0400... About 4% are NQ earrings for extra jobs

44+54*6+41*16=1024

I'm just guessing, what do you think?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Vonima2

注意: プライムウェポン・ステージ４が手に入りますとボスが強化されます（倒してもガリのボーナスはなし）。

---

>Warning: When making a stage 4 Primal weapon, the bosses are irreversibly stronger. "and there are no maufry bonuses."

Looking at the EN forum, the same discussion is going on in the JP forum.
Many ppl have demanded something improvements from producer.

P.S. I’m not fluent in English, so I apologize if my expression is wrong.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Aslani

As has been mentioned before, this comment is NOT true. Many of the Prime weapons (mostly the one-handed weapons) are quite weak. The Naegling, which can be obtained by a relatively new player from a single day of farming Ambuscade, is stronger than an "ultimate" Prime weapon that takes almost a year of daily Sortie. .

---

RIP Naegling...

SE, I begged you guys every update before you released sortie to make sure it was alliance content, like all other REMA level farms have been thru out the history of the game. Yet for some reason every content you made since the release of The Voracious Resurgance has only been 6 person. Now I understand there are less players then say when you released Dynamis Divergence, there are still plenty of characters to do Sortie as alliance.

Look at the result of your actions, player base dropped 30% since the release of sortie and people are more fragmented then ever, even people within their 6 person clicks argue regularly, fear missing one day so they don't get replaced by the eager 7th person. Was this how you wanted it to be?

You gave us great 6 man content in Odyssey, I greatly enjoy farming sheols, and even some of the gaol bosses, granted V25 is a bit brutal for sure, and not being able to help people without hurting my own progress sucks, so I'd welcome adjustments there? But the content itself is enjoyable.

But sortie? everything is so far apart you have to have a movement speed job present or you will lose 20% or more muffins gains, its an hour every day instead of a half hour, which I'm guessing we suppost to do both, so hour and a half each day on just those, if your not working on anything else, like ambu, master levels, or any of the older content. Some of us still run Omen and Dynamis Divergence, aeonics for others too?

So for one last time I beg you SE, Fujito-san, I beg you SAVE FFXI, its not impossible

My suggestion on how to fix sortie: Limit entry to twice a week, maybe the extra run system still with Ruspix once a month? Quadruple, or maybe even slightly more the muffin gains, allow alliance inside. This would make the content far more enjoyable and have way less burn out. and thats not even considering if you guys adjust the lower level sortie bosses weaknesses to be more reasonable.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Shuko

My suggestion on how to fix sortie: Limit entry to twice a week, maybe the extra run system still with Ruspix once a month? Quadruple, or maybe even slightly more the muffin gains, allow alliance inside. This would make the content far more enjoyable and have way less burn out. and thats not even considering if you guys adjust the lower level sortie bosses weaknesses to be more reasonable.

---

NO NO NO, HARD NO, I'm not one of those hard core go go go guys, we do farm 3-4 times a week (or less thanks to summer) but I feel like Limiting it to 2x a week is not the answer at all. IF you are going down that path, just Double the Gali Gain. That would fix it way better then a 2x limit at 4x the points.

That Said Alliance could make things easier heck even 12 man over 6 could make things better.
Allow Sapphires/Starstones to be traded for Gali (even if it was 1/5 or 1/10 of their cost it would help) Or even towards gear, like Empy +2 takes 1 sapphire and 50k Gali Or 5 Sapphires, and +3 takes 1 starstone and 70k OR 7 starstones, something like that.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ragnarzero

NO NO NO, HARD NO, I'm not one of those hard core go go go guys, we do farm 3-4 times a week (or less thanks to summer) but I feel like Limiting it to 2x a week is not the answer at all. IF you are going down that path, just Double the Gali Gain. That would fix it way better then a 2x limit at 4x the points.

That Said Alliance could make things easier heck even 12 man over 6 could make things better.
Allow Sapphires/Starstones to be traded for Gali (even if it was 1/5 or 1/10 of their cost it would help) Or even towards gear, like Empy +2 takes 1 sapphire and 50k Gali Or 5 Sapphires, and +3 takes 1 starstone and 70k OR 7 starstones, something like that.

---

Just suggestions, most players are unhappy with it, so that's just what I think would help. But I'm sure there are many other great ideas to improve it, I liked many of them on this thread.

Sortie was already fairly poorly designed before any of this stage 4 nonsense came to light. Earrings aren't carrot enough to go after on their own, nor gravy enough to make farming muffins more palatable. There are players who view the inability to merc or rmt your way through it as a major perk, but their sour grapes aside, the lack of anything even remotely rewarding to fill the content between empyrean upgrades and prime weapons is a fairly major flaw. Outside of mesosiderites the rest of the prime stones are so abundant as to basically be useless. I haven't even accumulated enough gallimaufry for a stage 3 yet but I have enough octahedrites to upgrade every prime to stage 3. And that isn't hyperbole, there are 16 primes and I have 38 octahedrites. Starstones and Sapphires aren't much better. If I wanted to I could upgrade the empyrean for every job to +2 and most of them to +3 without needing to hunt for more stones of any kind. I have vendored about 3 stacks worth of old cases because the nq cases aren't even worth opening anymore. And I don't even do sortie every day. I am probably averaging 4 times a week right now.

To further exacerbate things, the decision to have a majority of the mechanics for sortie be black-box means that we often don't know when things aren't working as intended, because we don't know what "as intended" means. The metals don't seem to have the magical weight Fujito is telling us they have, which suggests to me that either his understanding of the mechanics is flawed, or the mechanics themselves are broken. And we wouldn't even know if they are broken because we don't know what they are supposed to do fully and what we perceive them to do is largely so worthless that a lot of people don't bother getting them.

I don't expect any of these problems are fixable with the dev team currently as it is. I would be surprised if they have enough people to do much more than just turning the stage 4 difficulty off or allowing difficulty selection to be chosen upon entry. My guess is if they do anything, it will be one of those two things.

Well, trading sapphires / eikondrites, etc has to be done because the amount of sapphires & eikondrites are getting ridiculous but making sapphires 1/10th of their cost (10k gal so would be 1k, if i recall) isn't really much of an incentive. 99 will sell for 1 empyrean+3 piece. What they could do is make all the chests 10 times more gal than comes up currently, or 5 times more, even.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ratatoskr

hi everyone :)
Im a JP player in Odin.

Thanks to one EN player dropping two bombs, the JP forum is revitalizing.

>Please disclose the rate of getting chance and the percentage of each job earring.

Thanks for the interesting data.

I'm a little concerned about you said this in factor 4.
"4. HQケースを50個開けると、+1イヤリングを入手する確率は約90％、+2イヤリングを入手する確率は約9％となります。"
the literal translation is,
”4. if you open 50 HQ cases, you have about a 90% chance of getting a +1 earring and about a 9% chance of getting a +2 earring."

however, if 4. is "expected value of if we open 50 HQ cases"
we get about a 10% chance of getting only +1 earrings and about a 90% chance of getting at least one +2 earring, correct?
0.956^50＝0.1054... and 1-0.1054=about 90%

as for the disparity per job, I was curious too, so I did some estimating and found that if the denominator is 1,024...

22*2 HQ earrings for 2 slots each job
44/1024 = 0.0429... about under 4.3% get some kind of HQ earring
2/1024 = 0.0195... Individually, about 0.2% each.

Assuming the remaining 980 slots are allocated to NQ earrings
54/1024 = 0.0527... About 5.3% are NQ earrings for standard jobs
41/1024 = 0.0400... About 4% are NQ earrings for extra jobs

44+54*6+41*16=1024

I'm just guessing, what do you think?

>Warning: When making a stage 4 Primal weapon, the bosses are irreversibly stronger. "and there are no maufry bonuses."

Looking at the EN forum, the same discussion is going on in the JP forum.
Many ppl have demanded something improvements from producer.

P.S. I’m not fluent in English, so I apologize if my expression is wrong.

---

thank you for the insight into what is happening on the JP forum. glad to know many of us are in agreement. if there are any specific post we should pay attention to please continue to share!

We are three days away from a Prime Stage 4. Fujito! Please let us know what you'll do!! I want Helheim all the time but I don't want to ruin Sortie for every person I play with forever! It's quite a silly position to put the players in. . . there is actually a much greater incentive currently to NOT upgrade our weapons. And if the greater incentive is to NOT upgrade, then why do we continue to do this?

just wait till you get 7.5m Galli then upgrade to Stage 4 and hope you beat Amonion and get stone without cheesing it with Absorb-tp, this is the only avaiable solution to have the Strongest Weapon outisde Sortie.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Velner

We are three days away from a Prime Stage 4. Fujito! Please let us know what you'll do!! I want Helheim all the time but I don't want to ruin Sortie for every person I play with forever! It's quite a silly position to put the players in. . . there is actually a much greater incentive currently to NOT upgrade our weapons. And if the greater incentive is to NOT upgrade, then why do we continue to do this?

---

Don't trade it in, get the Galli for the last stage. Then just do runs of the easier basement NMs and basement chests to try and get the drites.

You have to assume though that you can't get another Prime this way after getting the last stage complete as the effect on the NMs probably persists and it's a slow grind from there.

Waiting on the 7.5 Gallimaufry is such a bummer, though. It's my Helheim and I need it now! Haha

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Yoji_Fujito

What Effects These Changes Had

We are aware that some of you have expressed concerns that it is more difficult to simply collect spoils and gallimaufry in a “normal” Sortie run if someone with a stage four Prime Weapon is in the party.
The game automatically checks the stages of each player’s Prime Weapon, so if someone is in possession of a stage four Prime Weapon, this phenomenon is unavoidable.

As a result, the player in possession of a stage four Prime Weapon might feel responsible for causing other players to have a more difficult version of Sortie than intended, and may in fact feel some hesitation at joining a party that is simply there to farm resources, as they wish to not make things harder for others.

We did not intend for players to have their gameplay experience or ability to participate in Sortie adversely affected, but if this issue is causing consternation for players, then I feel it must be addressed.

---

This really is the entire issue. If there were some way to make the check compare Prime Weapon progress and current job, so someone who has a stage 4 Helheim could still enter Sortie on Dragoon without triggering the enrage mechanic (at the cost of not receiving the mesohedrite drops they normally would), that would make this situation so much easier to live with. It's largely the fact that getting to a certain point in the process on any weapon irreversibly poisons the well for that character that makes it so divisive within the community; making the added difficulty an option that you choose to face by entering with the appropriate prime weapon would turn this into a simple "this fight is very tough and we need to learn it."

Good day, everyone.
Thank you all for your feedback on my previous post.

Let me first offer a dual apology: first, for failing to provide a sufficient explanation before implementing the system the way we did, and second for causing confusion and disappointment for those of you who were so passionate about upgrading your prime weapons.

Having pored over all of your comments, questions, and concerns, I sat down with the development team and discussed your various opinions and proposals on the following two issues:

• The difficulty change is automatic, and thus party members who aren’t looking to upgrade their Prime Weapon to stage 4 are unwillingly roped into a higher difficulty boss.
• The lack of notification surrounding the difficulty adjustment before entering Sortie.

The way the system currently works is that ownership of a stage 4 Prime Weapon triggers the change in difficulty. We are going to adjust this system, as we believe it is causing the most consternation amongst all of you.

• The difficulty of notorious monsters in Lower Sortie E-H will no longer be increased if someone with a stage 4 Prime Weapon is in the party.

Even if we were to add a difficulty selection toggle for the notorious monsters in Lower Sortie E-H like with the last boss, the last bosses’ toggle would be independent of the individual HMs, so there would be no reason for players to go out of their way to defeat “hard mode” NMs. Simply removing their adjusted behavior is the more sensible option.
* While it would be possible for us to add two different difficulty options, doing so would require all party members to have access to both options, which would make finding the appropriate party members even more different than currently, so we believe that this option is off the table.

• We will add an option for players to choose hard/normal mode difficulty when entering the #? boss area in cases where one or more players possess a stage 4 Prime Weapon.
  * This option will not display if no stage 4 Prime Weapon bearers are present.
  • Hard Mode:
    • Aminon’s behavior will change and he will gain 25% damage reduction
    • Materials needed to upgrade Prime Weapons will have a chance to drop when he is defeated.
  • Normal Mode:
    • Aminon’s behavior will not change.
    • Materials needed to upgrade Prime Weapons will not drop.

This adjustment is being made with the intent of making it easier for people to form parties based on their objectives, whether it be to earn gallimaufry or to obtain items needed to upgrade Prime Weapons.
The goal is not to make it easier for players to upgrade stage 4 Prime Weapons, so the adjustments to Aminon are intended to keep the difficulty roughly equivalent even though players are no longer required to tackle harder difficulty NMs in Lower Sortie E-H.


Notes:

The difficulty of the Lower Sortie boss is intended as trial for those wishing to upgrade stage 4 Prime Weapons, and once the Prime Weapons have reached their final stage this difficulty adjustment is no longer necessary. The upshot of this is that players looking to upgrade their second and subsequent Prime Weapons will not have to continuously face powered-up versions of bosses, so there is no need to worry about being endlessly locked into hard mode content.

These changes are currently scheduled to go live in the September version update.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Yoji_Fujito

Good day, everyone.
Thank you all for your feedback on my previous post.

Let me first offer a dual apology: first, for failing to provide a sufficient explanation before implementing the system the way we did, and second for causing confusion and disappointment for those of you who were so passionate about upgrading your prime weapons.

Having pored over all of your comments, questions, and concerns, I sat down with the development team and discussed your various opinions and proposals on the following two issues:

• The difficulty change is automatic, and thus party members who aren’t looking to upgrade their Prime Weapon to stage 4 are unwillingly roped into a higher difficulty boss.
• The lack of notification surrounding the difficulty adjustment before entering Sortie.

The way the system currently works is that ownership of a stage 4 Prime Weapon triggers the change in difficulty. We are going to adjust this system, as we believe it is causing the most consternation amongst all of you.

• The difficulty of notorious monsters in Lower Sortie E-H will no longer be increased if someone with a stage 4 Prime Weapon is in the party.

Even if we were to add a difficulty selection toggle for the notorious monsters in Lower Sortie E-H like with the last boss, the last bosses’ toggle would be independent of the individual HMs, so there would be no reason for players to go out of their way to defeat “hard mode” NMs. Simply removing their adjusted behavior is the more sensible option.
* While it would be possible for us to add two different difficulty options, doing so would require all party members to have access to both options, which would make finding the appropriate party members even more different than currently, so we believe that this option is off the table.

• We will add an option for players to choose hard/normal mode difficulty when entering the #? boss area in cases where one or more players possess a stage 4 Prime Weapon.
  * This option will not display if no stage 4 Prime Weapon bearers are present.
  • Hard Mode:
    • Aminon’s behavior will change and he will gain 25% damage reduction
    • Materials needed to upgrade Prime Weapons will have a chance to drop when he is defeated.
  • Normal Mode:
    • Aminon’s behavior will not change.
    • Materials needed to upgrade Prime Weapons will not drop.

This adjustment is being made with the intent of making it easier for people to form parties based on their objectives, whether it be to earn gallimaufry or to obtain items needed to upgrade Prime Weapons.
The goal is not to make it easier for players to upgrade stage 4 Prime Weapons, so the adjustments to Aminon are intended to keep the difficulty roughly equivalent even though players are no longer required to tackle harder difficulty NMs in Lower Sortie E-H.


Notes:

The difficulty of the Lower Sortie boss is intended as trial for those wishing to upgrade stage 4 Prime Weapons, and once the Prime Weapons have reached their final stage this difficulty adjustment is no longer necessary. The upshot of this is that players looking to upgrade their second and subsequent Prime Weapons will not have to continuously face powered-up versions of bosses, so there is no need to worry about being endlessly locked into hard mode content.

These changes are currently scheduled to go live in the September version update.

---

This is a relief. Thank you for sharing. 4 questions:

1.) Will subsequent Stage 4 Prime Weapons have this increased Aminion difficulty? (or it a first-weapon only condition?)

2.) Would you consider Sortie: Movement Speed+25% feet armor for all jobs?

3.) Will you consider adjusting on the distribution and drop ratio for +2 earrings? (We're concerned they seem to favor basic jobs, which was an issue for Abyssea items in the past).

4.) Can we exchange excess items (octahedrites, NQ, +1, +2 earrings for Gallimaufry at a rate of 1/5? Our inventories are overflowing).

Well in that post it does list only hard mode aminon can drop upgrade items, which has to be Mesosiderite. So you'll always have to fight hard mode aminon anytime you need upgrade items.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Yoji_Fujito

Good day, everyone.
Thank you all for your feedback on my previous post.

Let me first offer a dual apology: first, for failing to provide a sufficient explanation before implementing the system the way we did, and second for causing confusion and disappointment for those of you who were so passionate about upgrading your prime weapons.

Having pored over all of your comments, questions, and concerns, I sat down with the development team and discussed your various opinions and proposals on the following two issues:

• The difficulty change is automatic, and thus party members who aren’t looking to upgrade their Prime Weapon to stage 4 are unwillingly roped into a higher difficulty boss.
• The lack of notification surrounding the difficulty adjustment before entering Sortie.

The way the system currently works is that ownership of a stage 4 Prime Weapon triggers the change in difficulty. We are going to adjust this system, as we believe it is causing the most consternation amongst all of you.

• The difficulty of notorious monsters in Lower Sortie E-H will no longer be increased if someone with a stage 4 Prime Weapon is in the party.

Even if we were to add a difficulty selection toggle for the notorious monsters in Lower Sortie E-H like with the last boss, the last bosses’ toggle would be independent of the individual HMs, so there would be no reason for players to go out of their way to defeat “hard mode” NMs. Simply removing their adjusted behavior is the more sensible option.
* While it would be possible for us to add two different difficulty options, doing so would require all party members to have access to both options, which would make finding the appropriate party members even more different than currently, so we believe that this option is off the table.

• We will add an option for players to choose hard/normal mode difficulty when entering the #? boss area in cases where one or more players possess a stage 4 Prime Weapon.
  * This option will not display if no stage 4 Prime Weapon bearers are present.
  • Hard Mode:
    • Aminon’s behavior will change and he will gain 25% damage reduction
    • Materials needed to upgrade Prime Weapons will have a chance to drop when he is defeated.
  • Normal Mode:
    • Aminon’s behavior will not change.
    • Materials needed to upgrade Prime Weapons will not drop.

This adjustment is being made with the intent of making it easier for people to form parties based on their objectives, whether it be to earn gallimaufry or to obtain items needed to upgrade Prime Weapons.
The goal is not to make it easier for players to upgrade stage 4 Prime Weapons, so the adjustments to Aminon are intended to keep the difficulty roughly equivalent even though players are no longer required to tackle harder difficulty NMs in Lower Sortie E-H.


Notes:

The difficulty of the Lower Sortie boss is intended as trial for those wishing to upgrade stage 4 Prime Weapons, and once the Prime Weapons have reached their final stage this difficulty adjustment is no longer necessary. The upshot of this is that players looking to upgrade their second and subsequent Prime Weapons will not have to continuously face powered-up versions of bosses, so there is no need to worry about being endlessly locked into hard mode content.

These changes are currently scheduled to go live in the September version update.

---

Thank you Fujito, I am sure this was not an easy conversation and decision. This choice sounds like a far more ideal of a system to implement. Thank you for taking the time to speak to us all, and thank you for all of your hard work.

As a final remark, please consider adding more variety to Sortie. Sortie still has more potential in it to become a more enjoyable event.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Yoji_Fujito

Good day, everyone.
Thank you all for your feedback on my previous post.

Let me first offer a dual apology: first, for failing to provide a sufficient explanation before implementing the system the way we did, and second for causing confusion and disappointment for those of you who were so passionate about upgrading your prime weapons.

Having pored over all of your comments, questions, and concerns, I sat down with the development team and discussed your various opinions and proposals on the following two issues:

• The difficulty change is automatic, and thus party members who aren’t looking to upgrade their Prime Weapon to stage 4 are unwillingly roped into a higher difficulty boss.
• The lack of notification surrounding the difficulty adjustment before entering Sortie.

The way the system currently works is that ownership of a stage 4 Prime Weapon triggers the change in difficulty. We are going to adjust this system, as we believe it is causing the most consternation amongst all of you.

• The difficulty of notorious monsters in Lower Sortie E-H will no longer be increased if someone with a stage 4 Prime Weapon is in the party.

Even if we were to add a difficulty selection toggle for the notorious monsters in Lower Sortie E-H like with the last boss, the last bosses’ toggle would be independent of the individual HMs, so there would be no reason for players to go out of their way to defeat “hard mode” NMs. Simply removing their adjusted behavior is the more sensible option.
* While it would be possible for us to add two different difficulty options, doing so would require all party members to have access to both options, which would make finding the appropriate party members even more different than currently, so we believe that this option is off the table.

• We will add an option for players to choose hard/normal mode difficulty when entering the #? boss area in cases where one or more players possess a stage 4 Prime Weapon.
  * This option will not display if no stage 4 Prime Weapon bearers are present.
  • Hard Mode:
    • Aminon’s behavior will change and he will gain 25% damage reduction
    • Materials needed to upgrade Prime Weapons will have a chance to drop when he is defeated.
  • Normal Mode:
    • Aminon’s behavior will not change.
    • Materials needed to upgrade Prime Weapons will not drop.

This adjustment is being made with the intent of making it easier for people to form parties based on their objectives, whether it be to earn gallimaufry or to obtain items needed to upgrade Prime Weapons.
The goal is not to make it easier for players to upgrade stage 4 Prime Weapons, so the adjustments to Aminon are intended to keep the difficulty roughly equivalent even though players are no longer required to tackle harder difficulty NMs in Lower Sortie E-H.


Notes:

The difficulty of the Lower Sortie boss is intended as trial for those wishing to upgrade stage 4 Prime Weapons, and once the Prime Weapons have reached their final stage this difficulty adjustment is no longer necessary. The upshot of this is that players looking to upgrade their second and subsequent Prime Weapons will not have to continuously face powered-up versions of bosses, so there is no need to worry about being endlessly locked into hard mode content.

These changes are currently scheduled to go live in the September version update.

---

Thank you for Addressing this quickly and for all your hard work, as a developer myself I know turn around on things like this is not always easy.

I know Some people will struggle still to kill the Last boss (hard mode) as his moves are very unforgiving or harsh. Has the idea of making the upgrade item 100% on hard mode but on normal mode making it 1% meaning there is a very small chance you could get one on normal but guaranteed on hard?

also Gwydion had some very good questions.

Again thank you for your time.

Yes, you did the bare minimum, such a great effort worthy of praise. Hurray for you.

The bar is so disgustingly low.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Yoji_Fujito

Good day, everyone.
Thank you all for your feedback on my previous post.

Let me first offer a dual apology: first, for failing to provide a sufficient explanation before implementing the system the way we did, and second for causing confusion and disappointment for those of you who were so passionate about upgrading your prime weapons.

<...>

---

Thank you very much for addressing this issue so quickly, the community greatly appreciates when the developers take our feedback seriously and implement changes to address our concerns.

There are a couple other concerns regarding Sortie / Prime weapons that still persist, though:

1) I mentioned this in a previous post, but many of the Prime weapons are quite weak compared to existing weapons in the game. I believe ALL of the one-handed weapons are weaker than Naegling, for instance. Are there any plans to consider strengthening the linked Prime weaponskills so that these weapons are not so weak? Are there any plans to implement augments after the final stage is completed? I would like for the weapon that I worked so hard to make to actually be useful when it's done. From what many of us have seen in game so far, this is not the case presently.

2) The drop rate of +2 earrings is still unreasonably low. Are there any plans to improve the drop rate, implement +2 cases with guaranteed +2 earrings inside, or implement some sort of earring trade-in system?


Thank you very much, and I hope you continue to implement improvements to make Sortie more enjoyable and rewarding content.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Yoji_Fujito

Good day, everyone.
Thank you all for your feedback on my previous post.

Let me first offer a dual apology: first, for failing to provide a sufficient explanation before implementing the system the way we did, and second for causing confusion and disappointment for those of you who were so passionate about upgrading your prime weapons.

Having pored over all of your comments, questions, and concerns, I sat down with the development team and discussed your various opinions and proposals on the following two issues:

• The difficulty change is automatic, and thus party members who aren’t looking to upgrade their Prime Weapon to stage 4 are unwillingly roped into a higher difficulty boss.
• The lack of notification surrounding the difficulty adjustment before entering Sortie.

The way the system currently works is that ownership of a stage 4 Prime Weapon triggers the change in difficulty. We are going to adjust this system, as we believe it is causing the most consternation amongst all of you.

• The difficulty of notorious monsters in Lower Sortie E-H will no longer be increased if someone with a stage 4 Prime Weapon is in the party.

Even if we were to add a difficulty selection toggle for the notorious monsters in Lower Sortie E-H like with the last boss, the last bosses’ toggle would be independent of the individual HMs, so there would be no reason for players to go out of their way to defeat “hard mode” NMs. Simply removing their adjusted behavior is the more sensible option.
* While it would be possible for us to add two different difficulty options, doing so would require all party members to have access to both options, which would make finding the appropriate party members even more different than currently, so we believe that this option is off the table.

• We will add an option for players to choose hard/normal mode difficulty when entering the #? boss area in cases where one or more players possess a stage 4 Prime Weapon.
  * This option will not display if no stage 4 Prime Weapon bearers are present.
  • Hard Mode:
    • Aminon’s behavior will change and he will gain 25% damage reduction
    • Materials needed to upgrade Prime Weapons will have a chance to drop when he is defeated.
  • Normal Mode:
    • Aminon’s behavior will not change.
    • Materials needed to upgrade Prime Weapons will not drop.

This adjustment is being made with the intent of making it easier for people to form parties based on their objectives, whether it be to earn gallimaufry or to obtain items needed to upgrade Prime Weapons.
The goal is not to make it easier for players to upgrade stage 4 Prime Weapons, so the adjustments to Aminon are intended to keep the difficulty roughly equivalent even though players are no longer required to tackle harder difficulty NMs in Lower Sortie E-H.


Notes:

The difficulty of the Lower Sortie boss is intended as trial for those wishing to upgrade stage 4 Prime Weapons, and once the Prime Weapons have reached their final stage this difficulty adjustment is no longer necessary. The upshot of this is that players looking to upgrade their second and subsequent Prime Weapons will not have to continuously face powered-up versions of bosses, so there is no need to worry about being endlessly locked into hard mode content.

These changes are currently scheduled to go live in the September version update.

---

Fantastic, thank you for this. I welcome the challenge on Aminon, but I would not want others and myself be subjected to the increased difficulty 100% of the time. I can’t wait to upgrade to the next tier now.

Could we please have the currency to upgrade Emperyeon Armor and the Prime Weapon be different? Please and thank you.

Thank you for your quick fix and time to reply, However Sortie issues it is more of Job than a game, +2 earring rare to drop and even if they drop not garunteed with high augmentations. also, 6 months or more for ultimate weapon is too much and unreasonable on the current state of the game, which is people are quiting cause of lack of creativity and recycled content with randomness that is called diffculity(V25).

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Aslani

2) The drop rate of +2 earrings is still unreasonably low. Are there any plans to improve the drop rate, implement +2 cases with guaranteed +2 earrings inside, or implement some sort of earring trade-in system?


Thank you very much, and I hope you continue to implement improvements to make Sortie more enjoyable and rewarding content.

---

Kind of off topic…
I’ve been gathering data on JSE earring augment rate. With the rarity of +2 cases being factored on top of the augment rate appearing to favor lower augments, and having all this land on the job of choice, it’s pretty painful to see thus far. When I have a larger data pool I’ll post on Ffxiah.

I would like to see the drop rate improved, or the augment results narrowed from 7-15 on main attributes, for example, to 11-15 or something along those lines. Considering the amount of time used to obtain one, these earrings should be better for their jobs targeted sets, not have a chance of being better if you get a good augment.

Still hasn't addressed the basic gaining of gal, like enabling us to trade the stacks of sapphires/eikondrites we now have for gal.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by RichLester

Still hasn't addressed the basic gaining of gal, like enabling us to trade the stacks of sapphires/eikondrites we now have for gal.

---

Sadly that will not change any time soon I fear. I know the Devs want to draw this out and make it take time.
But I feel like they overlook the fact the game is not like it used to be, and if these weapons are so great, a lot of people play multiple jobs and like to gear out their jobs. If it took a lot less Gali and like 3 months to make one (still a decent amount of time to make one IMO, you can knock an Empyrion out in a days, or even a mythic in less then a week) people would make multiple. taking close to 1 year for me to make one, i'm either going to get bored, or burnt out before I finish it and I feel like I am an Average player. People that play solo, or less then i do will take much much longer if at all. but If it took less time/Gali i'd consider making 2-3 for my favorite jobs (BLU, COR, SAM).
I agree something needs to make Gali farming easier, but I really fear it will be some time before that happens.

I agree & I also mentioned in another forum under General Discussion, we are now in our 30s/40s. No longer in our 20s when we had plenty of time for this game. People have jobs, family, life & other games to enjoy. We have hardly any time for this anymore. I only pop on mainly to do the monthly objectives/ROE4 NMs & Sortie for 1-2 hrs each evening. Even the developers have now moved onto other things, which says something in itself. All I want is 2 or 3 for my DRG, BLU, BLM/SMN but 3 years to get them plus getting the empyrean gear to +3, I may aswell just wait for the prime weapons until the empy+3 gear I want is done. It took a while to get to 99 sapphires/99 eikondrites so I don't see any harm in selling them for gali. It won't harm the balance of the game, either. It's just another way to get gali, whether we want to go with a party or solo due to not being able to form a party or wait for party members to show up for Sortie.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by RichLester

Still hasn't addressed the basic gaining of gal, like enabling us to trade the stacks of sapphires/eikondrites we now have for gal.

---

Because it very likely isn't happening, so how many times do you need to keep asking? The goal is to have you farm it more, not less. They have made that clear so throw away the stones or horde them, it doesn't matter.

having now read that 4gamer interview, i do wish the design philosophy for prime weapons was different. maybe they thought that in order to justify the costs of replacing server hardware instead of ending service that they needed to make the grind extra long to retain players, but so far as i can tell, its having the exact opposite effect because the process is too harsh. people are quitting the game left and right.

I read that 4gamer interview & it isn't good reading. Also to remind, Sortie is only an hour long per day so we can only get fixed-ish amount of gali each time we go in. If I feel getting a prime weapon to octahedrites 1mil level is a waste of over 1/2 a year of my time, even I may think of heading off to play other games like FFXVI & I've been on this since 2006, with a few long breaks. all missions completed & deliberately left quests outstanding for end end of the game for entertainment.

Well you could form a static with 6 to get more gallimufry so it would take less time. SE is trying to promote group play as this is still a MMORPG. 6 months to get 1m comes out to about 5.5k a run for 180 runs, I'm sure you could get more if you team up.

True but also depends on where you live. I'm UK so 5 to 8 hours ahead of USA so for me, it does depend on who's around at the time. I know it's meant to be an MMO but eventually, numbers will dwindle down when people get bored of doing sortie farming all the time, just to get 1 or 2 prime weapons & find there's other games to play and things to do.