Is this a MMO?

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chasing_the_dragon
Metaphorical
The metaphorical meaning of the term alludes to the feeling that the next ingested dosage of a drug will result in a nirvana that seems and feels imminent and conclusive, yet upon consumption never quite yields the promised experience—leading to the desire for the next dose that still promises the same—thus chasing the dragon but never catching it.

Is FFXI a MMO? I only ask because I don't seem to do any partying with others. There have been no shouts for delve or skirmish in weeks and any I try and start dissolve due to lack of interest. In fact, the only thing that makes FFXI seem like a MMO is competition for resources and an economy that has gone off the rails as far as affordability of items. I have been playing FFXI a LONG time. While some of the problems are new and some are old, the lack of clear direction seems to be the biggest turn off.

How does one find a group? The largest on-going flaw with FFXI is the way it relies on unsupported web-based systems to do it's work. Shouting/Yelling does not get you very far if no one is interested in what you want to do. Linkshells will only help if you're at the special nexus of being in one with the ability and in one willing to go with you. So you have to outside the game for solutions like forums. I've often said FFXI is like sex. You spend all your time trying people to do it with and it's over in 5 minutes for better or worse.

How does one find information? Let's say there are no parties for whatever you're trying to do and you find yourself on your own or you find yourself leading a part with people who are willing to go but don't know what to do. You go between 3 or 4 web sites trying to put together information that is misleading, contradictory, incomplete or wrong. On a good day it's just an annoyance that takes up a little more of your time. For Nyzul Isle it means I'm still on floor 5 and don't have a snowball's chance in Halvung of ever getting a Nirvana.

How does one obtain items for jobs that are treated as prerequisites? So we're in a situation where there are parts of the game that completely cut you off from progress because of an inability to complete them weather it's because of lack of group or information. Now we need to add the fact that there are groups that will not invite you for things if you do not have certain items for your job. The whole game is now starting to unravel because problems with completion can not be handled in game or with the existing external supports.

How do you handle the use of third party tools? Now let's say despite previously mentioned difficulties you manage to get the gear for your job and a group that wants to let you go with them. Your problem now is a choice between having this group and violating the Terms of Service because you need to be able to change out this gear with every action you take. Or they want you to be able to see other party members TP. Or they want you to be able to tell the HP% of the current monster. Or your exact range from said monster. Or any number of things that Linkshells expect you to have in your user interface. The problem here is the selectness of how you enforce the bans I've seen over the years. The majority of my first linkshell was banned but you aren't enforcing on healbots, skillbots or people who change 9 pieces of gear before, during, and after casting. I will be addressing solutions to other issues but this one can only be solved by either adding things to the available UI or staring to bring down the ban hammer.

How do you make content soloable? In my ideal world, all game issues would be solved by bringing players together. But there is plenty to be said about moving content to a solo stage as it gets older. If you do intend to do this, there are a laundry list of things that need to be addressed including anything that requires multiple players for multiple switches, things that are limited by time spent waiting for the next day and monsters that cast death or doom. (in a game where you lose exp when you die it is a dick move anyway) Missions for every expansion, Dynamis, Assault, even some monsters in Abyssea have these problems.

How does one skill up? It's not as deeply broken as the other things I've talked about except in a couple places but I feel like it's important enough to mention. Defensive combat skills, summoning magic, healing magic and enhancing magic all need better/faster ways to skill.

There is one integrated solution that will fix most of this game's problems. First thing you have to do is bring back the LS community site. Make that a platform that fully tracks a player's items, mission, and quest progression. Then you can start helping them find other people to do it with or information to complete it. You then need to manage a wiki for the game. You don't have to give away all the game's secrets but you should make sure there aren't any outright falsehoods, make the same information available in all the game's languages and add anything patched in to the game.

Finally, you need to add incentive. A system that rewards players for helping other players with progression. This system is a last resort. Even with all the tools available some things just cannot be done without other players. If they cannot be found by traditional means, there should be a system that will assist progression no matter what. There will also be players who have done everything and an all inclusive upgrade system is the only thing that will keep them playing obsolete content. Every day you get login points, these points can be spent buying help from other players or upgrading items. When your objective is completed, the helping player(s) gets your points. Community site would be used to organize parties. You could even use the points from this system as a reward for contributing to the wiki. Now BOOM! Everyone is getting things done and has plenty they can help others do.

At the end of the day all I want is a game I can recommend to my friends instead of warning them they'll never be able to catch up. I started playing this game when Chains of Promanthia came out. It feels like I'm always trying to catch up and find people for content no one plays any more. It's been like that all the way up to delve and skirmish. I just can't seem to catch up and because this is Final Fantasy, I really feel like I'm chasing a dragon.

It's never been easier to catch up than it is now, though. Leveling takes less time. Once you're at 99, you can be equipped in the new Eminence gear sets and weapons. Work on replacing those through skirmish and WKR shouts.

None of these goals take an amount of gil at all like they used to. So there's no gil farming investment required to recent a competent level of gear.

Inside of a week of being at cap, they're geared to a decent enough level to contribute to anything.

LS community site was outdated and was trash anyway. The only reason 99% of people care was because FFXIAH polled it for information.

99% of your post was whiny garbage that doesn't matter and has no bearing on anything.

sega considers PSO mmo and theres nothing massive about. yes the game has changed but with a dwindling population and people getting older having less time to play the game there really was no other way for them to go.

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Originally Posted by Inafking

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chasing_the_dragon
Metaphorical
The metaphorical meaning of the term alludes to the feeling that the next ingested dosage of a drug will result in a nirvana that seems and feels imminent and conclusive, yet upon consumption never quite yields the promised experience—leading to the desire for the next dose that still promises the same—thus chasing the dragon but never catching it.

Is FFXI a MMO? I only ask because I don't seem to do any partying with others. There have been no shouts for delve or skirmish in weeks and any I try and start dissolve due to lack of interest. In fact, the only thing that makes FFXI seem like a MMO is competition for resources and an economy that has gone off the rails as far as affordability of items. I have been playing FFXI a LONG time. While some of the problems are new and some are old, the lack of clear direction seems to be the biggest turn off.

How does one find a group? The largest on-going flaw with FFXI is the way it relies on unsupported web-based systems to do it's work. Shouting/Yelling does not get you very far if no one is interested in what you want to do. Linkshells will only help if you're at the special nexus of being in one with the ability and in one willing to go with you. So you have to outside the game for solutions like forums. I've often said FFXI is like sex. You spend all your time trying people to do it with and it's over in 5 minutes for better or worse.

How does one find information? Let's say there are no parties for whatever you're trying to do and you find yourself on your own or you find yourself leading a part with people who are willing to go but don't know what to do. You go between 3 or 4 web sites trying to put together information that is misleading, contradictory, incomplete or wrong. On a good day it's just an annoyance that takes up a little more of your time. For Nyzul Isle it means I'm still on floor 5 and don't have a snowball's chance in Halvung of ever getting a Nirvana.

How does one obtain items for jobs that are treated as prerequisites? So we're in a situation where there are parts of the game that completely cut you off from progress because of an inability to complete them weather it's because of lack of group or information. Now we need to add the fact that there are groups that will not invite you for things if you do not have certain items for your job. The whole game is now starting to unravel because problems with completion can not be handled in game or with the existing external supports.

How do you handle the use of third party tools? Now let's say despite previously mentioned difficulties you manage to get the gear for your job and a group that wants to let you go with them. Your problem now is a choice between having this group and violating the Terms of Service because you need to be able to change out this gear with every action you take. Or they want you to be able to see other party members TP. Or they want you to be able to tell the HP% of the current monster. Or your exact range from said monster. Or any number of things that Linkshells expect you to have in your user interface. The problem here is the selectness of how you enforce the bans I've seen over the years. The majority of my first linkshell was banned but you aren't enforcing on healbots, skillbots or people who change 9 pieces of gear before, during, and after casting. I will be addressing solutions to other issues but this one can only be solved by either adding things to the available UI or staring to bring down the ban hammer.

How do you make content soloable? In my ideal world, all game issues would be solved by bringing players together. But there is plenty to be said about moving content to a solo stage as it gets older. If you do intend to do this, there are a laundry list of things that need to be addressed including anything that requires multiple players for multiple switches, things that are limited by time spent waiting for the next day and monsters that cast death or doom. (in a game where you lose exp when you die it is a dick move anyway) Missions for every expansion, Dynamis, Assault, even some monsters in Abyssea have these problems.

How does one skill up? It's not as deeply broken as the other things I've talked about except in a couple places but I feel like it's important enough to mention. Defensive combat skills, summoning magic, healing magic and enhancing magic all need better/faster ways to skill.

There is one integrated solution that will fix most of this game's problems. First thing you have to do is bring back the LS community site. Make that a platform that fully tracks a player's items, mission, and quest progression. Then you can start helping them find other people to do it with or information to complete it. You then need to manage a wiki for the game. You don't have to give away all the game's secrets but you should make sure there aren't any outright falsehoods, make the same information available in all the game's languages and add anything patched in to the game.

Finally, you need to add incentive. A system that rewards players for helping other players with progression. This system is a last resort. Even with all the tools available some things just cannot be done without other players. If they cannot be found by traditional means, there should be a system that will assist progression no matter what. There will also be players who have done everything and an all inclusive upgrade system is the only thing that will keep them playing obsolete content. Every day you get login points, these points can be spent buying help from other players or upgrading items. When your objective is completed, the helping player(s) gets your points. Community site would be used to organize parties. You could even use the points from this system as a reward for contributing to the wiki. Now BOOM! Everyone is getting things done and has plenty they can help others do.

At the end of the day all I want is a game I can recommend to my friends instead of warning them they'll never be able to catch up. I started playing this game when Chains of Promanthia came out. It feels like I'm always trying to catch up and find people for content no one plays any more. It's been like that all the way up to delve and skirmish. I just can't seem to catch up and because this is Final Fantasy, I really feel like I'm chasing a dragon.

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Or start making friends ._.

I don't have much issue making a group for anything I want to do, I admit getting 18/18 perfect setup for delve can take 2hr+ sometime if I /shout late, but full alliance isn't needed to win.

Plenty of ppl are interested in doing stuff, but they either refuse to play with randoms or would rather trio box.

I think the recent updates are addressing many of your concerns. The fact of the matter is that FFXI is past it's glory days- don't get me wrong, it's as insanely fun as ever with probably many more years in its future- but the once bustling white gate is more like a tourist destination now.

The dev team has responded, better late than never, allowing solo access to content like assaults, allowing us to summon nods to help get around places for when we might not be able to swiftly find a willing and able person to lend a hand.

So while delve and wildskeeper and skirmish seems to occupy most of the shouts on my server, older content has been made more accessible in lower numbers, which I agree is the right move.

I hesitate to classify the current FFXi as a MASSIVELY multiplayer online game- but it is certainly multiplayer and online- and active enough to where quetz downed all the wildskeepers on Saturday, had delve shouts, new BC groups, and even some monstrosity action.

But if you're looking to recommend FFXI to your friends, you've got to do it with the disclaimer of that it was originally launched 11 years ago- much like if you were recommending FFIX or FFX. They are all wonderful games but have their quirks from the generation the came out. XI is unique in that it's content eclipses by leaps and bounds and prior FF title, AND it's multiplayer. There has never been a better time to start playing in the post 99 level cap era. Transportation, UI, movement speed, eminence, are all things that enable a new player to enjoy the content a little more easily on their path to Adoulin and beyond.

Short Answer: Not anymore!

Square-Enix has deemed, like a lot of game developers these days, that the need for challenge and gradual progression is just not necessary (in order to make a lot of winners, hence more money). Too many people cried, "Timesink this, timesink that", leading to a massive overcompensation to where immersion, adventure, depth and gameplay have all taken a back-seat to the gear grind. Sure, they needed to cut out some of the ridiculous wait times/windows for certain things but instead of doing just that, they threw the baby out with the bath water, all but negating much of the game pre-99.

With this recent update, I feel like they've finally just thrown in the towel. No more effort to get your OP gear, even less need for crafters to make weapons/equips and teleports to anywhere just a few feet away. Hell, they didn't even try when creating models for the new gear; Recycled fisherman's tunic model on your 99 PLD? - You realize how stupid that looks? When I first saw someone in a full set of the Eminence gear, I thought "Wow, a Lv25 WAR in proper equips, that's rare..."

I actually got my hopes up that due to the RoE Level sync quest that people would be willing to go out and party again (I did see a 6/6 group doing beetles in Altepa after the update). Tried yelling, tell spam a few times and nobody was up for it. Probably getting my hopes up anyway. I'm sure I'd just end up teaching everyone how to play and dealing with a lot of gimp skills. Anyway, ta-ta!

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Originally Posted by Eyeballed

Short Answer: Not anymore!

Square-Enix has deemed, like a lot of game developers these days, that the need for challenge and gradual progression is just not necessary (in order to make a lot of winners, hence more money). Too many people cried, "Timesink this, timesink that", leading to a massive overcompensation to where immersion, adventure, depth and gameplay have all taken a back-seat to the gear grind. Sure, they needed to cut out some of the ridiculous wait times/windows for certain things but instead of doing just that, they threw the baby out with the bath water, all but negating much of the game pre-99.

With this recent update, I feel like they've finally just thrown in the towel. No more effort to get your OP gear, even less need for crafters to make weapons/equips and teleports to anywhere just a few feet away. Hell, they didn't even try when creating models for the new gear; Recycled fisherman's tunic model on your 99 PLD? - You realize how stupid that looks? When I first saw someone in a full set of the Eminence gear, I thought "Wow, a Lv25 WAR in proper equips, that's rare..."

I actually got my hopes up that due to the RoE Level sync quest that people would be willing to go out and party again (I did see a 6/6 group doing beetles in Altepa after the update). Tried yelling, tell spam a few times and nobody was up for it. Probably getting my hopes up anyway. I'm sure I'd just end up teaching everyone how to play and dealing with a lot of gimp skills. Anyway, ta-ta!

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I agree with the "not anymore" part– but only in reference to the word massively.

Look, Final Fantasy XI is an OLD game. It's also an incredibly huge game! The original restrictions and limits put in place to prevent players from running out of things to do or get to places faster don't make sense to maintain if you consider the following:

Original Japanese Release had:
6 Jobs, approx 70 zones and no real end game content aside from BC's (I think).

In 2013 we have:
22 Jobs (not including monipulators), approx. 221 zones, 21 unique battle systems, 5 hunt systems and roughly 944 quests!

I gotta stick up for the dev team on this one. The recent changes do not make current end game content like Delve any less challenging.

The recent changes do make it easier for everyone to progress through storyline missions.
They do make it easier to level up jobs.
They do make it easier to obtain suitable gear for average content.
They do make it less time consuming to travel (after enjoying the adventure through each area at least once to unlock warp points).

In my opinion, Final Fantasy XI is no longer a massively multiplayer online game with regard to a significantly large portion of the available content it contains. It is a multiplayer game. The auction houses wouldn't work if it wasn't. Ulbuka wouldn't be colonized if it wasn't. It only feels like a massively multiplayer online game when people join together to take on content like delve and wilds keeper rieves– and I think that's okay! I think it has carved out it's place historically in the Final Fantasy series, and it's a remarkable feat that it is still running with new and fun content. It's unreasonable to expect new or returning players to experience the same kind of slow progression that once existed when there is exponentially more content available. Those days are gone, and while we'll always have fond memories of how someone aggros a goblin in the dunes and wipes a whole party, new and returning players are making new memories of their own, and experiencing the game in a different way.

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Originally Posted by Eyeballed

Short Answer: Not anymore!

Square-Enix has deemed, like a lot of game developers these days, that the need for challenge and gradual progression is just not necessary (in order to make a lot of winners, hence more money). Too many people cried, "Timesink this, timesink that", leading to a massive overcompensation to where immersion, adventure, depth and gameplay have all taken a back-seat to the gear grind. Sure, they needed to cut out some of the ridiculous wait times/windows for certain things but instead of doing just that, they threw the baby out with the bath water, all but negating much of the game pre-99.

With this recent update, I feel like they've finally just thrown in the towel. No more effort to get your OP gear, even less need for crafters to make weapons/equips and teleports to anywhere just a few feet away. Hell, they didn't even try when creating models for the new gear; Recycled fisherman's tunic model on your 99 PLD? - You realize how stupid that looks? When I first saw someone in a full set of the Eminence gear, I thought "Wow, a Lv25 WAR in proper equips, that's rare..."

I actually got my hopes up that due to the RoE Level sync quest that people would be willing to go out and party again (I did see a 6/6 group doing beetles in Altepa after the update). Tried yelling, tell spam a few times and nobody was up for it. Probably getting my hopes up anyway. I'm sure I'd just end up teaching everyone how to play and dealing with a lot of gimp skills. Anyway, ta-ta!

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dear lord the recent update was awesome, why are people so bananas about when it comes to makeing a game more enjoyable and more fun oO

yeah have to say that the last update was awesome. If having leveling up etc suck was going to encourage more people to party it would have happened sometime in the last year and a half... what actually happened is the thought of leveling up a new job made me want to rage quit. Eminence and Trust have changed that.

I would like to see the game get the same stuff natively that windower users get though. I hate being gimped because I don't use third party tools.

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Originally Posted by Damane

dear lord the recent update was awesome, why are people so bananas about when it comes to makeing a game more enjoyable and more fun oO

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"Bananas" because my idea of fun isn't having major rewards thrown at my face just for spamming EP mobs. "Bananas" because people who think like me are hard-pressed to even find a game which doesn't have this developmental approach these days.

I'm 34 years old, been playing games since Atari almost religiously and early on I knew that they were going to be a major part of my life. I enjoyed the challenges and the gameplay, the worlds, the characters and the stories behind them. The type of players that sustain these games for long periods of time are the players who are serious about the games they play. They want and need the immersion that games today are severely lacking.

It's all about an industry that has become big business, interested only in that bottom dollar, marketing short-term interest for the sake of a single sale whilst leaving the forgotten majesty of video games in the dust.

The game is starting to show it age and at times they were not seeming to care about this great game. The rest of the world went a million miles a hour past this game. Yet we as gamers owe a lot for what FFXI did for the mmo games in last 11 years, FFXI and EQ grinds created the WOW phenom love it or hate it got main stream people to play mmos. FFXIV is trying to catch up and it working pretty good and a good game. With a lot hiccups on stuff that the mmo and gaming community has seen for the last 4 years.

One other thing is square so strict on fan videos it hard for fans to make good videos to show friends how awesome FFXI can be and there not enough money they put in to ads for the game so people do not even no this game is still running.

No its RPG your paying to play every month. You can think all the retards who wanted fields of valor 18 man partys to burn through there jobs
for that. Now the games stupid easy and boring. They got what they wanted now the games dead. Wasn't really hard to make a party back then, i did pretty fast all you had to do was /sea all and ask anyone with there party flag up if they wanted to party around your level most where just to lazy and just wanted the LFP for 3 days then cry saying you couldn't find one.

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Originally Posted by Eyeballed

"Bananas" because my idea of fun isn't having major rewards thrown at my face just for spamming EP mobs. "Bananas" because people who think like me are hard-pressed to even find a game which doesn't have this developmental approach these days.

I'm 34 years old, been playing games since Atari almost religiously and early on I knew that they were going to be a major part of my life. I enjoyed the challenges and the gameplay, the worlds, the characters and the stories behind them. The type of players that sustain these games for long periods of time are the players who are serious about the games they play. They want and need the immersion that games today are severely lacking.

It's all about an industry that has become big business, interested only in that bottom dollar, marketing short-term interest for the sake of a single sale whilst leaving the forgotten majesty of video games in the dust.

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I am 32 and am playing 11 since over 10 years with like 3 little breaks (only 2-3 months). We are FAR away from getting everything thrown at our face, there is still things left that need alot of dedication. Mythics need alot of dedication, empys too with the dried out plate and rift market. Try getting a D.ring for another challenge. Besides I dont have the time anymore to play FFXI in the olde way, i have other obligations in RL and I think the current mix of grind and casual play that rewards you too is just perfectly balanced. You get rewarded for stuff you do, yet its not too grindy to be a total pain in the ass. Just the implementation of the homepoint system saves a ton of time!

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Originally Posted by Damane

I am 32 and am playing 11 since over 10 years with like 3 little breaks (only 2-3 months). We are FAR away from getting everything thrown at our face, there is still things left that need alot of dedication. Mythics need alot of dedication, empys too with the dried out plate and rift market. Try getting a D.ring for another challenge. Besides I dont have the time anymore to play FFXI in the olde way, i have other obligations in RL and I think the current mix of grind and casual play that rewards you too is just perfectly balanced. You get rewarded for stuff you do, yet its not too grindy to be a total pain in the ass. Just the implementation of the homepoint system saves a ton of time!

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To be fair, I didn't say everything because I didn't mean everything. I was talking of course about the RoE gear from 1-99. Now surely nobody regards a Lv1 katana as a "major reward", but when you have a piece of gear that has +839483943 EVA that can be bought with sparks (sparks just for spamming easy prey), well, that is what I'm talking about.

And by the way, I'm not far off being able to buy a defending ring :)

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Is this a MMO?

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Yes.

Next question, please.

I see that this game has creates a large divide between the casual player and the full time players. Its getting kinda sad where they demand you have an item to join an event where you get the item itself.....

Its the whole chicken and the egg thing, you need the weapon to get the weapon.

People complaining things were added to the game to make it easier for people, why am I surprised to find this?

You want to know why they make the game easier? I cant answer, no one knows besides them, it may even be unintentional and they just don't realize how easy things are, but heres my thoughts.

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Originally Posted by Secondplanet

I see that this game has creates a large divide between the casual player and the full time players. Its getting kinda sad where they demand you have an item to join an event where you get the item itself.....

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This right here, great reason and cause to do it. Over the last few months what have Delve shouts wanted? SE asked us to include people in the content, help others, not be douchebags about it, but did we? No. They now added fairly easy level 117 to get, we can look at this one of two ways, either SE made this stupidly and threw very powerful gear in our face at the cost of little to no work, or, they saw that we ignored them for the most part and instead thought something along the lines of...

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Originally Posted by SE_Dev

Ya know what, you guys keep asking people to have Senbaak, Razorfury, Oats, or some other expensive and difficult weapon to get, just so they can join content. We tried to prevent this by making RMEs comparable to other gear, and by asking you to let others come with you for wins. Since you thought it was a good idea to ignore that, we are just going to add 117 gear you can get easily so that people are 'worthy' to join you.

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In all honesty, this is how I would address this community.



Past that. Trust, thats a response to Dualboxing Im sure, since we all know not everyone can do it and yet at the same time it causes massive issues for people who don't because people who do just do everything alone on their own.



These are enhancements for the game and its players, not just you, everyone, how about everyone who wants to complain about these issues look past themselves for a minute and understand this is actually a good thing rather than complaining about it constantly!

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Originally Posted by Demonjustin

Past that. Trust, thats a response to Dualboxing Im sure, since we all know not everyone can do it and yet at the same time it causes massive issues for people who don't because people who do just do everything alone on their own.

These are enhancements for the game and its players, not just you, everyone, how about everyone who wants to complain about these issues look past themselves for a minute and understand this is actually a good thing rather than complaining about it constantly!

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Wish I could give you more than one like. I missed the initial rush into SoA, so up until recently, I felt like buying that expansion was a complete waste of money. Since I wasn't in on the ground level, I couldn't seem to get into it now (partially due to my stubborness in the way ilvl stuff was added). However with the newest update, it seems that SE decided to once again level the playing field, but this time mostly to help out those who play the game solo.

Trust gives people their own cure-bots. It is letting me level geo on my own terms, pick a zone and just go to town without it taking my 5 minutes to melee down an easy prey mob, or doing the pet nuke method I've done with two other jobs. RoE gear has let me start doing some exploring in Aldouin and I finally went and got my blu spells from there (minus the UL ones). With RoE goals, it has opened places for me to level, where I'm not relying on FoV/GoV but instead doing something different. Ran around Castle Zvahl Keep fighting demons, and the 750 xp bonus for every 10 kills made it worthwhile, where as a week ago that zone to me was strictly NM farming.

Back to the OP, yes this MMO seems to have become a whole group of people playing solo. But right now it seems like there is more life in the world as I'm seeing people active in zones that have long been ignored.

While the recent updates have allowed for better gear, they still haven't offered anything that will allow me to take my BRD and PLD off the shelf.

They still have not changed the fact that 18 people are required to do delve, all the instadeath makes dynamis wins unsoloable, and there are multi parson switches all over vanadiel that can't be triggered alone. Finding people has actually become more difficult because everyone is off soloing.

You can buy skill up stuff with sparks but I've still used over 400 astrial homelands and still not capped on my SMN. I still have many other skills like enhancing, handbell and guarding that I still need to work with.

LS Community site is back but they haven't even added all the gear yet.

The more they add without any wiki support makes correct/updated information on everything in the game harder to find.

No progress has been made in cracking down on the use of 3rd party tools.

While I know they're doing some things that are nifty, it's not doing anything to address core problems with the game.

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Originally Posted by Inafking

While the recent updates have allowed for better gear, they still haven't offered anything that will allow me to take my BRD and PLD off the shelf.

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What's wrong with your BRD? Ochain or Aegis PLD should be able to get use in Ark Angel fights if you know people who do them or make your own groups.

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They still have not changed the fact that 18 people are required to do delve, all the instadeath makes dynamis wins unsoloable, and there are multi parson switches all over vanadiel that can't be triggered alone. Finding people has actually become more difficult because everyone is off soloing.

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Delve outside NMs can be low manned, Bosses are the only ones that take 18 people anymore, Plasm can be gotten via vouchers from RoE. Dynamis wins are soloable, just use a pet job or a job with twilight and you should be able to solo all of them except maybe Dynamis Lord with a fair amount of ease. Switches I agree are problematic but there aren't too many left I can think of, and I'm sure those will be gone in time.

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You can buy skill up stuff with sparks but I've still used over 400 astrial homelands and still not capped on my SMN. I still have many other skills like enhancing, handbell and guarding that I still need to work with.

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Sparks are fairly easy to get and only give 1 skill up worth, I don't see the issue here personally, its just time taking.

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The more they add without any wiki support makes correct/updated information on everything in the game harder to find.

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Actually they just added basically all of the stat info to new gear for us to see so we can tell its stats without having to play guessing games, such as Atrophy Chapeau +1 having +12 Fast Cast, rather than Enhances Fast Cast.

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No progress has been made in cracking down on the use of 3rd party tools.

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Such as? Bots? Report them, about the only thing that needs to truly go.

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While I know they're doing some things that are nifty, it's not doing anything to address core problems with the game.

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Depends on where you stand, and what you think the core issues are. Allowing me to solo Salvage, giving me side missions to do anywhere anytime I please, tons of great new gear to strive for, hard new battles, revived old battlefields, to me, one of my largest core issues was the fact I had not much to do outside of Monstrosity, now, I have a ton to do. To me, that issue was addressed, not all issues, no, but quite a few have been slowly solved in great ways.

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Originally Posted by Demonjustin

What's wrong with your BRD? Ochain or Aegis PLD should be able to get use in Ark Angel fights if you know people who do them or make your own groups.

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r/e/m are impossible without people. "people are hard to find" is one of my premises.

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Originally Posted by Demonjustin

Delve outside NMs can be low manned, Bosses are the only ones that take 18 people anymore, Plasm can be gotten via vouchers from RoE. Dynamis wins are soloable, just use a pet job or a job with twilight and you should be able to solo all of them except maybe Dynamis Lord with a fair amount of ease. Switches I agree are problematic but there aren't too many left I can think of, and I'm sure those will be gone in time.

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If you can find people to low man and if you can find people for the boss KI so you can buy everything. Pet jobs only get you so far and not everyone has them. What comes next is a list of areas you need to try on your own:
Dynamis Beaucedine Glacier
Halvung
Oldton Movalpolos
Phomiuna Aqueducts
I could mention more, but it's obvious you don't have a lot of experience so I would recommend you go explore.

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Originally Posted by Demonjustin

Sparks are fairly easy to get and only give 1 skill up worth, I don't see the issue here personally, its just time taking.

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The issue is with a couple of skills that are way out of balance and require other jobs to skill the one you're currently trying to skill.

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Originally Posted by Demonjustin

Such as? Bots? Report them, about the only thing that needs to truly go.

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I don't know why I should have to, they should be able to find them easier than I can. I used to report people all the time. It rarely did any good. I haven't done it recently because I don't see the point. Banning them is not going to do anything to resolve the core issues with the game these people are trying to address.

You don't seem to have a lot of understanding about what's going on in the game. Please stop trying to give out advice. You're not helping.

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Originally Posted by Inafking

What comes next is a list of areas you need to try on your own:
Dynamis Beaucedine Glacier
Halvung
Oldton Movalpolos
Phomiuna Aqueducts
I could mention more, but it's obvious you don't have a lot of experience so I would recommend you go explore.

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Dynamis Glacier - only been there a handful of times, so I'm not sure what takes multiple people to access.
Halvung and Movalpolos - Only thing I can think of requiring multiple people is for the convenience factor. You can flip switches to get where you need solo, just takes a longer time due to more running around.
Aquaducts - just the final room for a single CoP mission isn't it.

Eldeime Necropolis is the only zone I can think of off-hand that is impossible to pass through solo. QSC and Garlaige have been addressed over the past year or two.

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Originally Posted by Inafking

r/e/m are impossible without people. "people are hard to find" is one of my premises.

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Umm... I can solo, and have soloed, just about every single Empyrean NM at some point on RDM, with the exception of Glavoid, the Sandworm in Attohwa [A], and Khimera whom of which I have yet to try. Between the horribly insane amount of EVA, DEF, MEVA, and MDEF we have on our current gear, the NMs specifically in the path to get your Ochain, would be cake, same with a Harp, Harp however I have not seen people require in shouts for AAs on my server, but, that could just be over here, or they might just be getting glanced over by me.

In either case. T1/2/3 VNMs are easy, with the amount of MEVA we have you could kill them likely without any assistance besides possibly a Barspell on quite a few jobs /DNC, I used to solo them on RDM before Adoulin gear, with the exception of rare times a T3 would 1shot me, it was quite possible, nowadays, they hardly touch me. As for Ironclads, they have been just as easy to solo, EVA makes them much easier, just don't fight the one with the ability to strip you, or kite nuke it, bit time taking like the other trial but thats all. Azdaja you can solo very easily with a mild Fast Cast set for any job and /NIN, cycle shadows, maybe bring some healing temps from the NPC if you have no native healing powers, and Azdaja will fall quick and easy. The Khimera I would think is the hardest of them all, but I haven't tried it so I can not exactly give advice on it as of yet, that one may take more specific jobs rather than anything with /DNC or anything with /NIN.

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If you can find people to low man and if you can find people for the boss KI so you can buy everything. Pet jobs only get you so far and not everyone has them. What comes next is a list of areas you need to try on your own:
Dynamis Beaucedine Glacier
Halvung
Oldton Movalpolos
Phomiuna Aqueducts
I could mention more, but it's obvious you don't have a lot of experience so I would recommend you go explore.

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I fear you may take what I say in the context of a level 30 or something similar, I am the same Demonjustin who used to go under Demon6324236 on these forums before I was Perma-banned for attempted to start talks about one of the forbidden subjects you mentioned. I can assure you, I am quite experienced. As for the areas you mentioned you need people to get through, yeah, they didn't come to mind, but please, tell me how many people you think have been in Halvung, Oldton, or the Aqueducts(Still for the life of me can not think of one in here, only in the near by area of Sacrarium.)

As for Beaucedine, that is why I did mention a possible need of Twilight, BST gets access to Beatific Shield which with some PDT gear and Twilight on should keep you alive from the 4 dragons while your pet of choice chases it down and kills it as best it can, if you die, get up, use a new pet, throw it at the NM again. I suggest using cheap pets after the first time you die, its unlikely to kill you without Chainspell Death originally but then it will get iffy. If you get Shield Mastery on your Shield you can also build some great TP that way from the blocks and WS it when you raise up with Twilight which should be a nice bonus in DMG as well. All in all though, very possible Im sure, Death, or more specifically Chainspell Death, is your only true worry on BST I would think.

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The issue is with a couple of skills that are way out of balance and require other jobs to skill the one you're currently trying to skill.

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That seems more an argument towards increasing the current skill rate, the original way you put seems more like you were saying they need to increase what the books give you. To some extent I think the books should be 1 flat out skill up rather than skill points, but, the point I tried to make is its possible either way, easier than ever before, and it sounded just a tad bit ungrateful that you had to use 400 books you bought from random work you did to skill up and not even cap SMN, where as a month ago you would have been that SMN standing outside of Lower Jeuno everyone runs by as you spam their chat log with Carbuncle and Garuda.

I agree some skills need to cap faster and are currently unbalanced, and I would even argue with the speed of the game, skill ups in general need massively sped up, playing this character has brought me to that realisation after playing with Trust NPCs to 30 on RDM only to find my Sword and Dagger about 20 levels from cap with full time meleeing and my magic skills are so horribly gimped I dare not mention them.

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I don't know why I should have to, they should be able to find them easier than I can. I used to report people all the time. It rarely did any good. I haven't done it recently because I don't see the point. Banning them is not going to do anything to resolve the core issues with the game these people are trying to address.

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So, you complain that they have not done anything better to fix the issue of bots and such, yet, at the very same time, say you are not willing to assist with getting them banned in the only way you possibly can. To some extent I can agree with that, I honestly want to quit this game to some degree, and have for some time, mostly sticking around due to friends, one of the primary reasons for my wish to depart is the cost of everything being so high due to what I believe are the results of a massive amount of inflation from people who bot for fish, driving a ton of gil into the market on a daily basis, just like Blinkers did when they were worth doing. Now it has become a much more narrow issue, but an issue never the less, that makes it harder to buy things I need such as Plutons, because I do not bot, so those people who do bot and need Plutons like I do just buy it at higher prices and I end up without the power to get them. I know not everyone does it, but I know some who do and have.

I report people all the time when I am able, yes it sucks, but its something. You said you have reported them before, well, my idea is to just send a new report every day or every few days with roughly the same information about Beaucedine and its fishers, until something is done, if nothing is ever done, well, I have to agree, I am disappoint at the lack of action.

As for banning them not solving issues, what do you want them to do? Pure honest question out of curiosity, because to me, banning people is the only possible solution outside of nerfing the ways they make their money botting, and if you nerf that, you hurt bots and legit players alike, its a lose lose, unless you meant something else.

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You don't seem to have a lot of understanding about what's going on in the game. Please stop trying to give out advice. You're not helping.

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Your incorrect in your first statement so I chose to disregard the second and third, as I believe that perhaps you are underestimating my advice due to the misconception of what you believe is a lack of understanding about what is going on in this game.

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Originally Posted by Demonjustin

I am the same Demonjustin who used to go under Demon6324236 on these forums before I was Perma-banned

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*sigh*
(ten char)

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Originally Posted by Demonjustin

So, you complain that they have not done anything better to fix the issue of bots and such, yet, at the very same time, say you are not willing to assist with getting them banned in the only way you possibly can. To some extent I can agree with that, I honestly want to quit this game to some degree, and have for some time, mostly sticking around due to friends, one of the primary reasons for my wish to depart is the cost of everything being so high due to what I believe are the results of a massive amount of inflation from people who bot for fish, driving a ton of gil into the market on a daily basis, just like Blinkers did when they were worth doing. Now it has become a much more narrow issue, but an issue never the less, that makes it harder to buy things I need such as Plutons, because I do not bot, so those people who do bot and need Plutons like I do just buy it at higher prices and I end up without the power to get them. I know not everyone does it, but I know some who do and have.

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I'm glad somebody else said this. There's a reason why we have 911 instead of simply placing a police officer and a fire engine on every street corner.

The botting thing is a no-win situation for the FFXI team. It's an arms race. It's the MMO equivalent on the War on Drugs. One side makes a move, and the other side counters. The quality of life of botters decreases slightly (it's easy for them to simply move en masse to the next gil fountain) whereas legitimate, non-botting players that were using the same venue as a revenue source lose their daily bread.

I've been playing this game on and off since 2004, and there has not been one instance of anti-botting measures that didn't result in the fury of a thousand suns on the various fan forums. Even the Special Task Force - which was introduced as basically a squad of RMT hit men - was greeted with a barrage of STF(U) jokes.

The team definitely realized at some point that the best way to combat the RMT crowd is to simply make it easier to make gil using methods that force the wealth to trickle down from the top. Lots of the items that wealthy players rely on for upgrading or augmenting their gear are accessible from sources that all players can access. As for the actual bots themselves, banning two is just going to cause three to pop up in their place. It's the nature of the beast. A game without bots is a game that nobody is playing.

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Originally Posted by Xantavia

Dynamis Glacier - only been there a handful of times, so I'm not sure what takes multiple people to access.
Halvung and Movalpolos - Only thing I can think of requiring multiple people is for the convenience factor. You can flip switches to get where you need solo, just takes a longer time due to more running around.
Aquaducts - just the final room for a single CoP mission isn't it.

Eldeime Necropolis is the only zone I can think of off-hand that is impossible to pass through solo. QSC and Garlaige have been addressed over the past year or two.

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You seem to be another person with no idea what's going on. You're not helping.

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Originally Posted by Twille

*sigh*

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Not sure why its sigh worthy, nearly every ban was due to mentioning Third Party Programs including the final one, the only other reason really was when I said something that was thought to be particularly insulting to the Devs, which I find some of them laughable, but can not share. I find it sad that some things are so impossible to talk about with SE that there are literally 0 means of meaningful communication with them about the subject, such as the first one that got me banned, one I have tried talking to GMs about, talking about on the forums here, and sending feedback Emails about. Going by the Emails I got telling me why I was banned, it seems to me my being banned was more a matter of me saying things they just didn't want to hear rather than due to being a true problem within the forum community.

Besides that, I have tried to make it obvious, I feel I did nothing wrong besides break rules that are so set in stone we may not even speak of them really, which to me are the worst kind of rules possible. In either case, not a fact I try to hide.

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Originally Posted by Inafking

You seem to be another person with no idea what's going on. You're not helping.

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Feel free to make your point if you have one that's not properly being represented already, just saying people don't know what's going on doesn't really provide anything meaningful, it more or less sounds like 'yeah but that's not how I see things' which would come across a lot better really, than saying something that insinuates people are ignorant to the situation at hand. I have given advice on solutions to problems you have mentioned as well as rebuttals to everything you have said basically, I even went into more detail with my second post in order to hopefully drive home my points a bit better, as well as add in some details, such as why killing the Dynamis Zone Bosses solo is possible or why making an Ochain/Harp is manageable without an army, a group, or even a single other person.

I mean, if you do not wish to partake in a discussion by all means don't, but I did reply to your points accurately and to the best of my ability, and in reality. some of the things I said could even be changed now to be better, such as how SE has already mentioned using Trust NPCs to activate lamps now that we can solo Nyzul, I would now bring up how this same type of feature may one day be applied to hitting extra switches or opening doors for us such as in the areas you mentioned.

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Originally Posted by Inafking

You seem to be another person with no idea what's going on. You're not helping.

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Then please, inform me what areas are impossible to reach solo in Halvung, Movalpolos, or the Aquaducts (out of lamp room switches if you don't do it the right day of the week). Not shortcuts for convenience, but actually impossible to do alone areas.

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Originally Posted by Renaissance2K

I'm glad somebody else said this. There's a reason why we have 911 instead of simply placing a police officer and a fire engine on every street corner.

The botting thing is a no-win situation for the FFXI team. It's an arms race. It's the MMO equivalent on the War on Drugs. One side makes a move, and the other side counters. The quality of life of botters decreases slightly (it's easy for them to simply move en masse to the next gil fountain) whereas legitimate, non-botting players that were using the same venue as a revenue source lose their daily bread.

I've been playing this game on and off since 2004, and there has not been one instance of anti-botting measures that didn't result in the fury of a thousand suns on the various fan forums. Even the Special Task Force - which was introduced as basically a squad of RMT hit men - was greeted with a barrage of STF(U) jokes.

The team definitely realized at some point that the best way to combat the RMT crowd is to simply make it easier to make gil using methods that force the wealth to trickle down from the top. Lots of the items that wealthy players rely on for upgrading or augmenting their gear are accessible from sources that all players can access. As for the actual bots themselves, banning two is just going to cause three to pop up in their place. It's the nature of the beast. A game without bots is a game that nobody is playing.

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I can't agree with the majority of this, the problem is even after you call "911" in the game your told to go to the website and report it there, which when you do still nothing happens. I was trying to farm in dynamis and someone was using a clipping program to grab everything there was going mach 10 then 2 black mages walked out of the walls and nuked and walked back in the walls and alternated this tactic. I called a GM and they said they would do something, 1hr later they were still doing it and nothing was done about it. 2 of them still play today. Another case was me reporting a player using a program to target voidwalkers and the GM said they saw what was going on and filed a report..... again that person is still playing TODAY.

SE won't do much cause then they would be getting rid of paying customers and sometimes i wonder if there are more RMT then actual players at times. I know on my server a while back (haven't checked since) Beaucedine Glacier was packed with fishing bots... at times there were 50-60 of them on the coast line, you think a GM would stroll there with a ban hammer? NOPE. Also with the paradox area before Shinryu the amount of skill up bots that were there. At times i would see 20 of them doing it and there were more clipping past the walls trying to hide from players. I know a GM went server to server banning them but only after players were doing it for over 1 year, by then it was too late to really stop it.

I think the game was at its best when the choco blinkers were a way of money. I remember seeing the brosale /tells and it was 5mil for $2. That was how you hurt the RMT market. Even look at adoulin with the delve bosses, people on my server were selling wins for 30mil but GM's had no problem with that but you couldn't do a fell cleave party cause that was RMT? Broken rules.