Play as a Monster Camps

Where do you think the best places would be? First thought that comes to mind is Abyssea maws... level 30 leech camping XD

They said that it would be in certain designated areas that you can do battle. But it sounded that you could pick up points doing battle as you go along in real game.

Correct, there will be specific areas where "play as a monster" will be possible. The main reasoning for area limitations is due to the fact that huge monsters such as behemoth cannot move around in certain areas or certain parts of areas (think small cave passages etc.). Once there is more information on this we will be sure to pass it along. :)

Also, just as some follow up information in regards to this new system, we have seen concerns come up after announcing the concept of “play as a monster” in regards to whether or not the possibility would exist for players to just lose or win on purpose with their friends so they can receive rewards easily.

Obviously this would make this content quite boring and the development team is already at work to make a system to prevent this type of play style. This is the reasoning for notoriety/prestige (tentative name) points , which players can actively compete for. You will not be able to receive a reward by just defeating players with low point values continuously.

We have also seen a couple of requests for battlefields that can only be accessed as a monster as an alternative to the PvP element, so players can receive rewards there instead. While this is definitely an interesting idea and can be looked into in the future as a way to add elements to the system to make it more enjoyable, the concern is that by introducing this system, the focus of this content would shift to be more battlefield-centric taking away from the main idea of creating a fun and exciting way for players to fight as player vs. monster-player in open field areas.

well thats awesome! :D new content ^^ yes please

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Originally Posted by Camate

Correct, there will be specific areas where "play as a monster" will be possible. The main reasoning for area limitations is due to the fact that huge monsters such as behemoth cannot move around in certain areas or certain parts of areas (think small cave passages etc.). Once there is more information on this we will be sure to pass it along. :)

Also, just as some follow up information in regards to this new system, we have seen concerns come up after announcing the concept of “play as a monster” in regards to whether or not the possibility would exist for players to just lose or win on purpose with their friends so they can receive rewards easily.

Obviously this would make this content quite boring and the development team is already at work to make a system to prevent this type of play style. This is the reasoning for notoriety/prestige (tentative name) points , which players can actively compete for. You will not be able to receive a reward by just defeating players with low point values continuously.

We have also seen a couple of requests for battlefields that can only be accessed as a monster as an alternative to the PvP element, so players can receive rewards there instead. While this is definitely an interesting idea and can be looked into in the future as a way to add elements to the system to make it more enjoyable, the concern is that by introducing this system, the focus of this content would shift to be more battlefield-centric taking away from the main idea of creating a fun and exciting way for players to fight as player vs. monster-player in open field areas.

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SO I won't be able to camp low level areas and kill all the new players?

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Originally Posted by FrankReynolds

SO I won't be able to camp low level areas and kill all the new players?

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I just want to become the penultimate crab or slime and require so long to kill that people would rather give up and rage-quit than wait five hours for their inevitable victory.

My arch-nemesis will be whoever can wander off for four hours to make the most elaborate sandwich ever constructed then spend an hour taking the perfect picture of it to post as a strangely mundane instagram.

I think a lot of people were hoping this is what Pankration would be, when it came out. Or, something along these lines.

I'm very excited for this. I remember saying a few years ago that PvMP would be the only way for XI to have decent pvp.

I'm really excited about this as well! One of my favorite things about any video game was always when you finally got to play as the enemy, like when you could get Magus in Chrono Trigger to join your party.

So to clarify, it will work sort of similar to Voidwatch, where the designated places to do battle will be highlighted somehow? Or will it work to where you can openly participate, just in restricted zones, more like where you can and cannot ride a chocobo?

FellCleave>>>PC-Mandragoras>>>Profit?

I hope steal and mug works on Player Monsters >:)

Camate what about just playing as my character to fight other characters?


As it has been said before this is not a planned alternative to PvP, rather another game system- not a substitute.






If so is there something in the works for people who want to be the character they spent days, months, years, creating and adventuring the world with?

Why give up on the storylines of conflict so easily?

Or is there a way for this system to be used for players to fight each other as players?

If you do implement the system please give the option of fighting as your own character versus another character. The entire FFXI universe is rife with conflict, filled with strife, and built upon a bloody war, and catstrophes we never saw.

Greetings! (Sorry for the necrobump.)

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! :D

I’d like to share a bit of information about the “Play as a Monster” (working title) content that is currently in development, so let’s take a brief look at an example…

Let’s pretend my big behemoth self turns into a different monster like this rabbit here.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/at...589520&thumb=1

The name is not the player's name as you can see, and it is displayed in the log as “Rabbit” as well.

Once you become a monster, there will be a “monster skill” option added to your action command menu. (Apologies that the below is only in Japanese, but the highlighted option is “monster skill”)

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/at...589521&thumb=1

From this option you can select and execute abilities, which will require and consume TP.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/at...9&d=1353589520

Currently the rabbit’s level is pretty low, so I only have Foot Kick at my disposal, which is why I am out here fighting this mandragora. Once I level up I’ll start learning Whirl Claws and other abilities.

We wanted to become a really sweet monster and show off how you can fight against other players, but the PvP battle system is still being worked on, so we were unable to do it at this time.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/at...589521&thumb=1http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/at...589521&thumb=1

It’s also possible to upgrade (evolve?) to a Black Rabbit or a White Rabbit. Depending on what kind you become the abilities will differ. For example, the White Rabbit will learn Snow Cloud.

While I am sure a great deal of players are in fact looking forward to having a new PvP aspect added to the game, those who do not fancy PvP much will still be able to enjoy this content (i.e. changing into a variety of different monsters). However, since part of a monster’s daily activity is to battle with adventurers, there is a high possibility that we will not be making it so you can completely avoid PvP on the monster-side.

Even if you are not actively picking fights, you may be attacked, so in these cases you can either try to resist as much as possible or throw in the towel. Don’t worry though, there will not be any death penalty, so just repop and keep on trucking. We would like the “Play as a Monster” PvP to be content that is enjoyable and does not disturb relationships with friends.

On another note, when becoming a monster you will not be able to form parties with other monster players or adventurers. The main reason why it will not be possible to do the former is because adventurers will not be able to defeat an alliance of fully developed monsters. We also don’t want to make it so you get head hunted while playing solo either when you are not in a party, and would like to keep it easy to play without this stress. For the latter, as I mentioned above, part of a monster’s life is to fight adventurers, so we want to keep the hostile relationship between adventurers and monster intact.

The development team is powering forward to make this content ready for testing on the Test Server, and actually a portion of the data has already been put onto the Test Server last week. We will have some more information on the overall system soon enough to share with you all! :cool:

*Please keep in mind that the above is all in development and can possibly change.

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Originally Posted by Aramyth

I'm very excited for this. I remember saying a few years ago that PvMP would be the only way for XI to have decent pvp.

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Our current PvP is some of the most in-depth and nuanced PvP in any online game ever. Other games you mash 3 buttons and jump around in circles like a tard until the enemy dies, in this game you have an ever-changing strategy that shifts moment to moment and forces the players to quickly counter their enemies' abilities and respond with their own to achieve victory.

The really sad thing about it is the devs won't take it anywhere, despite it being one of the best aspects of the entire game. There is no greater challenge than the one another player can present to you, and that's exactly why the devs do not want. They can't control every aspect 100% due to the player variable and they don't want to admit it. Community whining about x and y job being better than others is cause for concern too, because then they would have to actually balance the jobs rather than doing random adjustments and calling it balance.

Personally I think this event is going to suck gobby sack, SE only wants us to PvP the way they feel we should, with a timesink and a bunch of convoluted rules and limitations thrown in to cut back on the inevitable sea of complaints about RDM being so broken in PvP yet being terrible at everything else. I think that speaks volumes about SE's balance issues by itself, that job is a poster child for neglectful parenting.

If you want to give us PvP, fix what is broken (as in take out the fact that if your not a job that can zerg everything in seconds your sol) and let us fight as ourselves.

I will not even bother with this, I do not wanna fight as a bunny or crab or whatever unless I can turn into a bluffalo and play actual content like taking out shin or real bosses like Prometheus. Seems silly, redundant and a complete waste of the few remaining devs resources.

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Originally Posted by Elphy

If you want to give us PvP, fix what is broken (as in take out the fact that if your not a job that can zerg everything in seconds your sol) and let us fight as ourselves.

I will not even bother with this, I do not wanna fight as a bunny or crab or whatever unless I can turn into a bluffalo and play actual content like taking out shin or real bosses like Prometheus. Seems silly, redundant and a complete waste of the few remaining devs resources.

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Opinions may differ but I think its good that SE is taking time to put out content for both casual players and endgame event grinders. I don't believe they want to give us a "new pvp" per say but they want to give us something thats new and fun. In addition, Camate did mention that its only limited to small monsters for now but I do expect and hope that this means they expand the variance of monsters beyond the simple ones.

Overall, I'm looking forward to the new way to interact with other players. As a Beastmaster I'm hoping this to help give us more insight into particular mob types. Despite all that I will level with those against this new "Play as a Monster" content and say that I do think this could go south if it doesn't have easy access unlike other creative idea's SE has put out like Pankration. Some sort of player benefit that came from partaking in this content would be nice as well.

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Originally Posted by Elphy

If you want to give us PvP, fix what is broken (as in take out the fact that if your not a job that can zerg everything in seconds your sol) and let us fight as ourselves.

I will not even bother with this, I do not wanna fight as a bunny or crab or whatever unless I can turn into a bluffalo and play actual content like taking out shin or real bosses like Prometheus. Seems silly, redundant and a complete waste of the few remaining devs resources.

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Moblin Maze, Pankration, Chocobo Racing + Breeding and Colosseum said hi!! Tons of neglected contents that are half baked with no substantial rewards, such a wasted resource to make it and yet they still cannot fix most of the glaring unbalance in some jobs and swimmingly along ignoring requests to fix Campaign, Walk of Echoes, and Dynamis.

Ok, as long as the dev team wants to talk about playing as a monster, I might as well give my question for them a shot. Will monsters have or be able to learn any normal player job abilities? After all, all monsters have at least one job, and some Notorious Monsters have player SP1 (two hour) abilities, and a few have Charm. Also, what about spells? Will we able to cast any? If so, can any monster type theoretically do that, or will it be limited to monster types that are already commonly mages (worms, hecteyes, corses, etc.)?

We don't care about this we want salvage

As was mentioned a few times, Fighting adventurers is part of a Daily Monster's life. Does this mean that we HAVE to fight? as such, does this mean i can simply be trolled when i want to fight other monsters, and have high level players hunting me down in the process? is there some kind of forced cap if a higher player attempts to hunt me? I.E. if i'm a rabbit in saruta, around lvl 5, does a lvl 99 player who randomly decides to attack me incur some sort of penalty [ A level or power restriction] ? or am i just ment to let them destroy me?

I'm more than open to the idea of PvP with this, but just like how i can do things by myself in Aby here and there, i don't want to always do this content with the worry of other players taking me out every few minutes. Rapidly dying =/= Fun Times.

I think when you attack a lvl 5 rabbit monster, you will automatically level capped to 5 and loose all your buffs and tp. This should discourage higher lvl players randomly butchering lower lvls. But personally they have to reveal what is the end game of this, and what are the rewards. Otherwise this will be included in the long list of forgotten activities, and truly a wasted effort.

I cannot wait for this to be implemented! :D

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Originally Posted by Caketime

Our current PvP is some of the most in-depth and nuanced PvP in any online game ever. Other games you mash 3 buttons and jump around in circles like a tard until the enemy dies, in this game you have an ever-changing strategy that shifts moment to moment and forces the players to quickly counter their enemies' abilities and respond with their own to achieve victory.

The really sad thing about it is the devs won't take it anywhere, despite it being one of the best aspects of the entire game.

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Originally Posted by Elphy

If you want to give us PvP, fix what is broken (as in take out the fact that if your not a job that can zerg everything in seconds your sol) and let us fight as ourselves.

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I posted a thread about expanding or upgrading Ballista

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/th...llista-Upgrade

Perhaps if people like yourselves would start the fire behind my post, SE may at least consider taking it to the drawing board.. who knows?

And as much as this content sounds intriguing, what has been said here is true. We already have a system of fighting each other and SE should start growing upon that, not introduce more broken systems that people will ignore and go right back to the systems that aren't as broken, if at all.

To the Dev team:
I understand that there is a temptation to try and make this a stand-alone event and to say to yourself, "Oh, but it will be fun so people will do it even if there aren't rewards that generalize to the rest of the game!" This is absolutely the wrong approach to take. I have a shelf full of games that I don't play because FFXI exists. If those stand-alone complete games that received rave reviews from my friends can't compete with FFXI, why would an in-game minigame be able to compete with it?

Please add some rewards to the upper tiers of this event that generalize to our main characters and are desirable. Like, reaching capped level as a monster rewards you with a ring that has stats based on your monster family. Nothing overly powerful, but better than alternatives (uniqueness is a good way to make something better than alternatives).

Examples:
* Beastly Ring (8 Accuracy, 8 Attack, 1% Double Attack)
* Lizard Ring (6 Evasion, 6 Accuracy, 6 Subtle Blow)
* Vermin Ring (8 Magic Accuracy, Occasionally optimizes Magic Hit Rate)
* Plant Ring (8 Mind, Enmity -4)
* Amorphic Ring (-6% Damage taken)
* Bird Ring (3% Critical Hit Damage, 8 Agility)
* Arcane Ring (5 Magic Attack Bonus, 5 Magic Accuracy)
* Undead Ring (5 Magic Accuracy, Enhances potency of "Banish" vs. Undead)
* Wyrm Ring (10 Ranged Attack, 13 Ranged Accuracy)
* Demonic Ring (10 Dark Magic Skill, Enhances effects of Drain and Aspir)

I'm kinda disheartened that people are so down on this event because "it's not linked to the main game" or whatever. No fun allowed, I guess? I agree that it would ideally have rewards linked to the main game, but this is the one time I feel like the event itself will be fun enough to be worth playing in its own right. Chocobo breeding and racing failed because not only did it not have rewards, but it just plain wasn't fun and was a pointless gilsink if you wanted to be good at it. Nobody goes to "chocobo racing" so that they can watch cutscenes ad nauseum, they want to...well, race. Pankration was a lot of fun IMO, but the problem was that it was never updated after that initial patch...it felt like they had so much more planned for it, then they just gave up for no reason. If the monsters had 150-250 FP by the time they reached higher levels we'd see more than just dark elementals and chigoes sitting in the champion's seat all day.

Moblin Mazes did have good rewards, for the people that said it didn't, you just had to really work for them (The weapons were all pretty good and a couple pieces of armor from it were good). The problem was that it was advertised as a "customized dungeon" when it was more "put on runes and hope something good happens".

As for questions for the dev team...can you ask them if this system will be linked to Pankration somehow? I really think that would make this a lot more fun. You'd customize a monster, then would be able to play as it.

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Originally Posted by noirin

As was mentioned a few times, Fighting adventurers is part of a Daily Monster's life. Does this mean that we HAVE to fight? as such, does this mean i can simply be trolled when i want to fight other monsters, and have high level players hunting me down in the process? is there some kind of forced cap if a higher player attempts to hunt me? I.E. if i'm a rabbit in saruta, around lvl 5, does a lvl 99 player who randomly decides to attack me incur some sort of penalty [ A level or power restriction] ? or am i just ment to let them destroy me?

I'm more than open to the idea of PvP with this, but just like how i can do things by myself in Aby here and there, i don't want to always do this content with the worry of other players taking me out every few minutes. Rapidly dying =/= Fun Times.

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I'm with you on this.

@ SE: Forced PvP opens up ways to constantly grief other players, so don't implement this idea. It doesn't matter if you think that fighting adventurers is an everyday occurrence for monsters, forcing an unavoidable PvP encounter on players opens to door to abuses and harassment. If I wanted this aspect of game play, I'd be playing another MMO.

Honestly, if this is the way the Play As A Monster system is going to operate, I won't even bother to unlock the content.

I was going to respond by saying it'd be monumentally stupid of them to not add in some kind of toggle for people wanting to PvPMonsters or not, but then I realized what dev team we're dealing with here.

I only have 1 thing to say:

So this is what is more important then the SMN updates that were promised/disclosed over 2 years ago? Fixes to the various jobs and their lack of usefulness?

Seriously, I cannot even describe the fail that this is when there are so many things that need to be fixed. Failed, failed and more fail, SE!

It's important to be positive about things.

Yeah, people can use this to harass you. But you can also use this to harass other people! Just think of the dickish possibilities before you, floating in an infinite sea of vinegar and water!

I for one am looking forward to it. It doesn't fix some (actually many) issues in the game, but it's a fairly fresh idea for PvP.

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Originally Posted by Caketime

Our current PvP is some of the most in-depth and nuanced PvP in any online game ever. Other games you mash 3 buttons and jump around in circles like a tard until the enemy dies, in this game you have an ever-changing strategy that shifts moment to moment and forces the players to quickly counter their enemies' abilities and respond with their own to achieve victory.

The really sad thing about it is the devs won't take it anywhere, despite it being one of the best aspects of the entire game. There is no greater challenge than the one another player can present to you, and that's exactly why the devs do not want. They can't control every aspect 100% due to the player variable and they don't want to admit it. Community whining about x and y job being better than others is cause for concern too, because then they would have to actually balance the jobs rather than doing random adjustments and calling it balance.

Personally I think this event is going to suck gobby sack, SE only wants us to PvP the way they feel we should, with a timesink and a bunch of convoluted rules and limitations thrown in to cut back on the inevitable sea of complaints about RDM being so broken in PvP yet being terrible at everything else. I think that speaks volumes about SE's balance issues by itself, that job is a poster child for neglectful parenting.

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Outstanding post.

first SE removes MPK only to later introduce it and make it easier than ever before!

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Originally Posted by Camate

Greetings! (Sorry for the necrobump.)

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! :D

I’d like to share a bit of information about the “Play as a Monster” (working title) content that is currently in development, so let’s take a brief look at an example…

Let’s pretend my big behemoth self turns into a different monster like this rabbit here.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/at...589520&thumb=1

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Now, let's say you wanted to stay being a behemoth, couldn't you become a mini-behemoth?

How many choices do you have in becoming a monster, what will the lore entitle?

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The name is not the player's name as you can see, and it is displayed in the log as “Rabbit” as well.

Once you become a monster, there will be a “monster skill” option added to your action command menu. (Apologies that the below is only in Japanese, but the highlighted option is “monster skill”)

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/at...589521&thumb=1

From this option you can select and execute abilities, which will require and consume TP.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/at...9&d=1353589520

Currently the rabbit’s level is pretty low, so I only have Foot Kick at my disposal, which is why I am out here fighting this mandragora. Once I level up I’ll start learning Whirl Claws and other abilities.

We wanted to become a really sweet monster and show off how you can fight against other players, but the PvP battle system is still being worked on, so we were unable to do it at this time.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/at...589521&thumb=1http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/at...589521&thumb=1

It’s also possible to upgrade (evolve?) to a Black Rabbit or a White Rabbit. Depending on what kind you become the abilities will differ. For example, the White Rabbit will learn Snow Cloud.

While I am sure a great deal of players are in fact looking forward to having a new PvP aspect added to the game, those who do not fancy PvP much will still be able to enjoy this content (i.e. changing into a variety of different monsters). However, since part of a monster’s daily activity is to battle with adventurers, there is a high possibility that we will not be making it so you can completely avoid PvP on the monster-side.

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Will other monster-players be able to link to you as monster do tend to link with mobs their own kind?

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Even if you are not actively picking fights, you may be attacked, so in these cases you can either try to resist as much as possible or throw in the towel. Don’t worry though, there *will not be any death penalty, so just repop and keep on trucking. We would like the “Play as a Monster” PvP to be content that is enjoyable and does not disturb relationships with friends.

On another note, when becoming a monster **you will not be able to form parties with other monster players or adventurers. The main reason why it will not be possible to do the former is because adventurers will not be able to defeat an alliance of fully developed monsters. We also don’t want to make it so you ***get head hunted while playing solo either when you are not in a party, and would like to keep it easy to play without this stress. For the latter, as I mentioned above, part of a monster’s life is to fight adventurers, so we want to keep the ****hostile relationship between adventurers and monster intact.

The development team is powering forward to make this content ready for testing on the Test Server, and actually a portion of the data has already been put onto the Test Server last week. We will have some more information on the overall system soon enough to share with you all! :cool:

*Please keep in mind that the above is all in development and can possibly change.

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*What reward other than exp. would a monster-player get for defeating an adventurer?

**Can you 'aggro' and adventure or link to another monster-play(same monster) engaged or same rules applied when a target is claimed?

***This would feel like a rush, why take the fun out of being notorious!! ;D

****Hostility is a mutual relationship and can be taken up into stages! Wouldn't it be more fun to earn the same as most mobs and NMs and enjoy it?

I feel that what they should do is combining Pankration and Colosseum with this.

Pankration: if you want to be certain monster, you must capture it via pankration and use the reward to buy that particular monster essence so to speak. So you can buy the basic rabbit essence and upgrade it to snow based bunny etc...

Then you level it via the normal PvP. And finally you use your levelled up monster to battle other player in Colosseum.

Colosseum: match is done instantly, you can select your opponent and rounds, and work on tournament. You can switch your monster essence before battle and can have 6 essences with you at all times and switch it out. Just copy the basic Pokemon, it is a good success for a reason. When you win you get points.

You can spend your points for basic accessories, which has 4 empty slots. Then you can fill those slots with monster essences to customize it. Say you have your basic ring, and you want to add STR, DEX, AGI, and Accuracy. Win more tournaments - spend your points for STR essence, upgrade to your slots to the max (say max STR6).

The Developers need to look at their past effort that failed spectacularly and figure out a way to revamp it with this new idea. Evolith is good in paper but executed miserably. Players need a new way to grind, why not give us a way to customize our own accessories. Put some limitation so we can choose the 3-4 stats we want to add to the slots. Say first slot we have to choose between HP, MP or Defense. Second and Third slots for stats (Str, Agi, Dex, Vit, etc) and last slots for others (evasion, accuracy, magic defense bonus, haste, damage taken).

Make it so that each monster family is good for certain stats correspond to the slots. Make players level that certain monsters and when hit max lvl, we can "sacrifice" it as monster essence and use it to customize our gears. So if you need certain stats, raise certain monsters and turn it into the essence you want.

This way, for example, a mage can make belt that hast stats of: 50MP, 10INT, 10MND, 5 Magic Att Bonus. Evasion melee can make: 50Def, 10Agi, 10Str, 10Eva. You get the idea.

My main question/concern to this new feature, is how will enmity be applied in this situation?

Lets say for example I'm a Wyrm monster being engaged by a party of 6. Whats to stop me from ignoring the Paladin who wants to tank me and doing absolute terror and killing the whm instantly, going after every single squishier job besides the paladin until he's by himself?

Now granted I'm sure something like provoke forces the monster to attack you for a set amount of time will be implemented, but that will be a small comfort, and possibly force all the tankier DD jobs to have to sub war, which will take away from the dynamic gameplay of this event.

So the main point is, how will enmity affect this event, and what will maxing it out do on the monster if it even comes to that?

Oh my god, I'm so glad you posted this! I was worried y'all had forgotten about it! I've been looking forward to Play as a Monster since the day it was announced. I absolutely cannot wait. Back when Pankration was put into the game, I leveled up mobs like crazy (my favorites were blue chigoes and golems). I always thought it'd be cool to take our leveled up monsters into the field, but actually PLAYING as a monster is infinitely better. Keep up the good work! I'm looking forward to it so, so much! <3

P.S. Requisite request for chair/bench furnishings.
P.P.S. On a second read through, there sure are a lot of negative nancys in this thread. How sad. :(

Looking forward to this feature.

I <3 Bunny! I am sadly excited about this. I hope this will be fun and will have a point. If nothing else it should allow you access to max level BST pets upon some level of achievement.

This idea is like the bastard child of Beastmaster and Blue Mage. And since I love both jobs, I find this idea relevant to my interests.

I reallllllllly hope this is the kind of thing we can do while waiting for a void watch group to gather.... you know, when like one person doesn't have the sky warp or whatever. It looks fun :D I am all for simple fun content to break up other end game activities.