Bring a meaning to all the Exploration.

Disclaimer:

This is going to be a post mostly about how empty the world feels in an expansion designed for explorations... it addresses lack of meaningful open world content in the new areas, specifically Notorious Monster (not HNMs) and lack of meaningful non-accessory crafted items.

==Long winded speech==

Hello everyone! I logged on for a bit today, and I think it truly hit me why I feel more detached from this game than I have in years. I'm not going to try and make this a "nostalgia" or a full on "Complaint without solution" thread. I just feel like for the first time I'm seeing clearly what happened in XI that slowly drove me away from the game.

Its that the world feels empty now. Back at 75 cap, we'll use that as an example, there were things you could just go "do" in the open world. Things had value, there were NMs to camp that were relevant or enjoyable in some ways. These things are missing from todays XI.

Roc is worthless, all the old valuable are worthless, and all the new ones come only from instanced party content. It feels like the game has become modernized in more than 1 way. It feels like the world is a waiting hub for dungeon/instanced content... a contribute downfall of many MMOs as it makes players easily feel unimmersed and unintereted in their surroundings.

I haven't spent a second exploring any new Adoulin zones, because whats the point? What am i going to find, more boring exp mobs of different colors? There's no reward to exploration. No coffers to find, no NMs to hunt, nothing. Just regular mobs after regular mobs, an uninteresting dead landscape inhabited by nuisances that have no value to their existence.

I logged on and just realized, If i'm not doing any of the selected Instanced content, theres very little to do. Back when, I could go camp an obscure NM and gain something from it... Even something like Ochimusha Kote had value... and some NMs had value simply because of their Synth mat drops. While not every NM had value, there was something to do that lended itself to an end goal, even if it was gil.

Now I won't be so blind as to act like I can't just go farm like the old days, but theres so little gil to be had with any act of farming because most farm able items are used in obsolete gear, therefor their prices are plummeted, and what little there is to farm is more devalued by the fact that crafted gear takes backseat to I.lv r/ex stuff, dumbing down crafting to little more than sport.

It feels like, and I'm sorry if this seems negative, the game is rounding itself toward a FFXIV feel. I played XIV, i enjoyed it, but its not for me and I take a step back and realize XI is slowly morphing into XIV. Crafting is becoming obsolete as all crafted gear is significantly below the 119 I.lv cap (except for the 117/118 weapons which even now are obsolete), and the best uses for most of the crafting items is accessories or quests.

The game just feels like "If its not instanced, its not worth it". Though some strides have been made to the otherwise, like RoE... but RoE feels like a bandaid on the gaping wound left by the slow rot of the open world. I mean, what is there to do in Adoulin? Its a nice "I'm bored so lets exp" area, but outside of that what of value comes from these normal enemies?

umbril ooze used to be of value but thats collapsed in on itself as well. Most of the new synth material is Rock-Salt tier because nothing of crafted value has been added outside of a few "marginal" upgrade accessories. Making a farming market pretty rough, and leaving the only valuable thing to farm come from either Dynamis, Salvage, or Walk of Echoes... again all intanced content.

Who's gone out and farmed Silk Threads? Beastmen Blood? Minning? Anything lately? The value and the experience is gone. There is nothing to log on and do that has in itself a means or purpose that doesn't involve 5 other people. though i do point out again, RoE was a marvelous addition and attempts to breathe some life or meaning to the open world, even if it is through points used to buy.. more r/ex stuff. I mean, even the new Haubergeon is R/Ex...


==Proposed Solution: Open world feels==

My proposed solution is to breathe life back into the world. Add NMs to the open world again. Lottery spawn, timed spawn(not24hr+), even a few Non-delve related forced pops wouldn't hurt. I think the fear here a lot of people have is some bad memories of the best of the worst NMs in the old days. Mee Deggi, Quu Domi, Valkurm Emperor, Leaping Lizzy... and your fears are not unfounded. However i feel the good far outweighs the bad, and I've never enjoyed the idea of playing the safe route if it means taking away the meaning of the world we play in.

Adding a slew of NMs to each zone would give purpose to the zones existence, meaning to the emptiness of these large areas. They don't all have to be 1 one rape forces that require 18 people to take down... they could be just special NMs that can be killed with a group of trusts, or solo with skill... and not all of them need to drop I.lv130 weapons that sh*t on delve. These NMs can easily be integrated in a way that gives people a want and reason to explore, but not obsolete old content. I can give you a few right now.

*all items have typical I.lv vomit. Stats shown are on top of usual bonuses (I.e armor with STR+3 DEX+3 VIT+3 thanks to I.lv, will have STR+10 DEX+10 VIT+10 if the item below lists +7 to those stats... get it?

==Ceizak==

*Aristaios(A bee) - Lottery spawn from the Bees @ (pos)(~1hour):
[hb]-Favors wind based spells. Casts Aeroga III/Aero V/Graviga
-Can use Pollen for up to 5k HP.
-Can rarely use Frenzy pollen[hb]
Drops:

Arcadian Pugio:
DMG:83 Delay:191
STR+8 AGI+8 R.acc +18 R.atk +23
"Snapshot" +3
(I.lvvomit)
I.lv117 RNG/COR/THF

*Preying Mantis (Red Mantis model)
-Uses only Preying Posture and Raptorial Claw
-Can use Preying Posture occasionally without TP limitations.
Drops:

Solid Mantid Carapace (Crafting item)
Preying Mantid Sickle (crafting item)

*Sickle used to craft Mantid Harpe.
-DMG:113/114 Delay:210/210
Attack +25/26 "Magic attack bonus"+25/26
"TP Bonus" +50.0/55.0
I.lv118/119

*Carapace used in Mantid Harness(a certain red harness)
DEF:whatever (I.lv Vomit)
HP+30 Accuracy+30/35 Evasion+30/35(+i.lv)
Double Attack+3/4
Triple Attack +1/2
Ice resist -10 Wind Resist +30
Earth Resist +30

*Fluffy Gabriel - Spawn from Fluffy Sheep @ I-7
-Uses "Wool guard", a unique TP move that increases DEF and Mdef by 50%.
- can use Lamb Chop 3x back to back.
--Drops

Wool Guard(shield-Size2)
DEF:30 HP+25 MP+50
Damage Taken -10%
Regen +3
WHM/RDM/BLM/BRD/SMN/SCH/BLU

==Yahze Hunting Ground==

Legcleaver - Spawns from Calfcleaving Chapuli.
-Uses Sensilla blades exclusively.
-when readying Sensilla blades, gains a short Earth Spikes effect that can Slow or Petrify on hit.
Drops

Cleaving Greaves
DEF:(?) STR+ VIT+
PDT-3%
Enhances Resist Slow +30
Enhances Resist Petrify +30
Physical damage: "Earth Spikes"

*Windbellow Twitherym
-Uses only Tempestuous Upheaval.
-Casts wind based magic.
-While casting, gains "Wind Spikes" which damage and knockback on hit.
Drops:

Windblown ring
DEF:5 INT+7
Wind Magic Attack bonus +10
Wind Magic Damage +10
Physical damage: "Wind Spikes"
All jobs

Windblown bangles(hands)
DEF:? AGI+7 INT+7 Wind resist+20 Ice resist +10
Wind Elemental damage +10
Wind Magic Damage +10
Reduces distance knocked back
All jobs

==Morimar

*Xiuhtecuhtli - Spawns from Raptors.
-Uses Foul Breath and below 25% uses Whirling Inferno
-Can cast single target Fire nukes and deuffs. including Addle/virus.
Drops

Serpent Claws
DMG:+122 Delay:+86
STR+12 Attack+12
Resist Plague +20
Additional Effect: Fire damage (~5% proc, up to 200 damage unresisted)

Xiuht Chain(neck)
STR+10 Attack+10
Double Attack+2%
Water Resist -50
Slow +20%

*Atlas - (a large)>HNM Style< Matamata - Spawned by trading "World Shard" to a ??? near WKR. World Shard dropped from Volatile Matamata at a ~rare-ish rate, more common inside Delve. (3 ??? will be in the area)
--"Cranial expulsion", - Short range, low damage conal+Petrify(short duration)
--"Tectonic Shift" - AoE Earth damage + Gravity/Slow.
--"Volcanic rupture" - Conal breath damage. Resets TP/Plague/Virus
--"Continental drift"(Low HP) -- AoE physical damage + knockback/rasp/Petrify
Drops

Atlas Stone (Ammo)
Avatar: TP Bonus +50.0
Magic Attack Bonus +10
Haste+2

Atlas Sash
STR+6 AGI+6
Ranged Accuracy +15
Ranged Attack +15
"Snapshot"+3
"Recycle" +5

Atlas Shell (Head)
DEF:? VIT+25
Damage Taken -8%
Water Resist+20 Fire Resist+20
Regen+2 Refresh+2
WAR/PLD/DRK

Weighted Mantle
DEF:30 HP+50 STR+10 VIT+10
Accuracy +10 Attack+15
Damage Taken -5%
Enhances "Resist Petrify"

... and so on. Basically, the world is ripe for the picking, and there are a few monsters that lend themselves to unique items and NMs. these above don't have to make it into the game, any of the items added update after update could easily come from NMs added through the zone. We don't need 4+ Hour lottery spawns anymore, 1hr is fine... we dont need 24+ hour timed spawns... once every hour or so is fine... they don't need to be best in slot for all situations.. niches are fine too.

Basically I just want some life brought back into the world, and it doesn't have to be the only option, but to log in, and head to Morimar with the intent of finding an NM would be nice... or navigating Yorcia to find a treant NM, something... I mean its an expansion built around exploring, and the entire concept of exploring feels meaningless when all you're finding is leagues of uninteresting fodder mobs.

Hell, Ra'Kaznar could house a slew of new NMs, it a veritable paradise. Now hopefully you made it here without the explosion of memories, good or bad, influencing you one way or the other. I'm not saying 75 cap was better (I love 99 cap and the power i feel with I.lv), I loved Abyssea, and I've loved playing FFXI since i picked it up around NA Beta... but thats why I'm upset that FFXI is feeling as unalive and unrewarding of exploration as your average modernized MMO today. Maybe thats the market MMOs are appealing too now and I'm a relic of a forgotten time... But i like to think some of you out there have the pioneering spirit still in you, and i know a mystery is never a mystery for long, but I'd really like to see new NMs breathed into these new zones, they don't have to follow level 75 guidelines of 21-24 hrs or 8 hr lottery spawns... just be there.

OMG IT'S A SCORPION HARNESS!!!

more on topic, i kinda like instanced stuff. i mean you're right, there's very little point to the overworld in general when everything is instanced, but honestly once people figured out old nms they were either optimal, and thus camped to shit, or not worth it and thus left to die.

but i suppose that's somewhat true of any content. instances MITIGATE things being camped to shit but when you have 18 ppl waiting for one guy to solo a VE AA, it doesn't solve it... so i guess none of that is any good reason NOT to implement new NMs. the trick is on SE to find the right balance between the nm being worthwhile, but around often enough so as not to turn into a hellcamped monopoly. maybe by making sure they drop nothing rare/ex and try to tune the spawn rates so they are always worth farming for gil, but they're common enough that the mats don't end up costing 7 million. that way the people that WANT to camp nms will always have a reason to, and the people that don't aren't so fucked over.

and i will just admit i AM terrified of hellcamped monopolies. that's not a game i wanna play anymore. (this one time a RL buddy of mine brought his laptop along when we went paintballing, to maintain fafnir ToD. that shit just isn't healthy)

and if we're daydreaming about reviving old gear models, W. BODY!!!

W body, Assault Jerkin, and the PLD cursed set (Martial?) would be cool to see again lol.

Also, Your fear is going to be my biggest hurdle, your fear is probably the most common fear people will have. Massively hellcamped NMs, and this is going to be true to some extent. However, I think they could work RoE into this. Have a RoE trial for killing the NM (Maybe kill it 5 or 10 times is the goal), and on the fifth time, you get a key item that can be traded in for the item the NM drops... This could in a way promote people teaming up for it, maybe if someone claims it solo, he can invite you and QM himself for the drop, but you get credit for the kill. (This is of course hoping they expand the number of active RoE you can have).

It has its flaws because the community can dick out on anything we can think to implement, but basically I'm saying I don't want to rid us of the ease this new cap has brought, I just want some of the fun the old cap had. I know not many people can say they actively had fun camping every single NM, but you can safely say you had fun camping a few of them... and I'd like that charm back. I mean each of these zones is large enough to fit 5 or more NMs in them, and all of them don't have to be best in slot items, as i explained many could be very good niche items like Melee armor for mages who want it, and so forth.. making it good for some people but not for all, lessening the hellcamped NMs.

Plus the population has died down quite a bit from the era of NMs, so you'll find it less likely to have 10-15 people sitting around like you did at Mee Deggi... at least after the first week or so.

There are indeed some bads to go with NMs, but theres a lot of good in it too, and I think the good outweighs the bad if we can blend the fun of the old with the ease of the new. There are solutions to ease the problems, nothing will perfect them, but I think it can be implemented easily.

That and, make the items (R), not (EX), so they can be sold or traded is a good start as well, and that combined with the RoE stuff, could make it easier to get than the old days.

(PS: Edited Atlas)

I agree with you and like your idea. The new areas are rather boring with so few unique things in them/NMs

I was thinking something similar last night while finishing up the last of my WotG missions. Outside of like 2 storyline quests, there is absolutely no reason to go to Castle Zvahl [S] areas. There are a lot of zones in the game that serve no practical purpose, which is a real shame. For some reason I love the design of Pso'Xja and look for excuses to go there, but outside of leveling I can't really find much. I was thrilled when I had magian trials that I could complete there. Which is one way I could think of breathing some life into Aldouin areas. Let us take our 99 magian weapons and upgrade them to 117 or so. Instead of just trading drops, maybe get X amount of experience from killing monsters of a certain family. Sure you could grind it out on incredibly easy prey, but the difference between 50 and 500xp a kill can be a great incentive to use the newer areas. Sure its just a band-aid solution, but personally I've only been in Aldouin long enough to get the non-boss blu spells and geo spells. Otherwise this lastest expansion holds 0 incentive for me to do anything with.

I always wanted to see a NM quest system like the one in FFXII put into this game. But with better rewards. Now I know the hunt registry system is very similar to that system but let's be honest all u do there is register to kill the NM. In the FFXII system it's more quest based and the rewards are better then what the hunt registry will give.

I would like it but I have to say, as much as I would love it, one thing here could never exist.

Quote:

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Solid Mantid Carapace (Crafting item)

*Carapace used in Mantid Harness(a certain red harness)
DEF:whatever (I.lv Vomit)
HP+30 Accuracy+30/35 Evasion+30/35(+i.lv)
Double Attack+3/4
Triple Attack +1/2
Ice resist -10 Wind Resist +30
Earth Resist +30

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Could never happen. A certain red job is on harness type bodies so far as I know, and the very thought of it being on a very high Accuracy, DA, and TA body, would make SE's head explode...

>_<;

I fully agree. I really think there needs to be more open world, both force pops, timed pops and lottery pops, that drop items relevant to today's game.

Like you said, items that are used for specific high level and relevant gear, and direct gear drops should be possible from these NMs, but I also have another suggestion. An NM can have a pretty rare drop rate for a certain piece of good armor, but if it doesn't drop, it should instead drop a crafting item that can be used to make a crafted version of the direct gear drop that you didn't get. This crafted equipment should probably either have the exact same stats, or have very similar stats. I was thinking that perhaps the crafting item could have a 3-5 times higher drop rate than the gear itself, so if you have some gear that is a 10% drop, the item used to craft the gear could have a 30% or 50% drop rate.

Some of the gear with crafted equivalents could be just rare, but some could also be r/e. This could vary from NM to NM, and depend a bit on how special the devs want each particular item to be. I am imagining all of these NMs to have a "content level" of about 109-117, and should drop gear in that iLv range. Gear that is better than sparks gear should definitely be available from these NMs, even if they share the same level.

This is such a good idea. I'm so bored with today's content that I've been taking a break from the game. This would definitely help with all that.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mirage

Gear that is better than sparks gear should definitely be available from these NMs, even if they share the same level.

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God yes. Sparks gear is so fugly. And lockstyle doesn't work with jobs that switch weapons etc around.

Forced popped nms with rare/ex triggers that drop off normal mobs in the area, but give crafting items for new Ilvl gear as well as a chance at a really rare drop, would add all kinds of things for people to do, hell could even make some new forced spawned hnms to the zones to maybe bring back a sense of community to the game. You could even make the forced popped hnm trigger drops come from the normal nms

It would also be fantastic if the devs added new recipes that use crafting items that already drop off NMs, or heck even out of date gear that drops from NMs as well. Frankly I'd like to see more recipes which use up older armor peices to help make them worth a damn again, maybe stuff would be up on the AH a little more often.

The devs added a bunch of NMs at one point that dropped nothing but crafting materials to make relatively stupid gear and or direct drops of stupid gear (see: http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Thunderclaw_Thuban)

Would be great if those dumb things could be used to create interesting things. Maybe could be a way towards the "solo path to 119" devs were talking about.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Demonjustin

I would like it but I have to say, as much as I would love it, one thing here could never exist.

Could never happen. A certain red job is on harness type bodies so far as I know, and the very thought of it being on a very high Accuracy, DA, and TA body, would make SE's head explode...

>_<;

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A contingency i haven't planned on... but its worth the risk! Either way, I appreciate the support here! I know not everyone has the same ideas on what fun is, but Its nice to know some of the community still enjoy the small things that made FFXI last so long while other MMO corpses piled on.

Mirage, I like your idea.. though I think that could be addressed with the RoE suggestion I plugged in. Each NM could have a RoE trial attached to it, maybe 5-10 kills to complete, and once completed you can receive a Key item to turn in for one of the NMs drops. I do think some of the new NMs should have crafting materials however, as crafting needs a boost as well... however the items listed/given (except from Atlas) were designed to be (R) only, and sellable.

The item level of the items i suggested were envisioned to be 117-119, on par with endgame, even if some are niche items!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Olor

God yes. Sparks gear is so fugly. And lockstyle doesn't work with jobs that switch weapons etc around.

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I agree that sparks gear is ugly, but in a strange way, that is a good thing. Gives a little extra incentive to upgrade to something better. I find myself taking off espial gear when I swap to an idle set with movement speed just to look at something else.

110% back this up.

To give some hopefulness to those that may not of seen it, or forgotten it, back shortly after Delve v1 came out (maybe when they added 119 RME mats?) there was a lot of congestion of the outside popped NMs. There was a lot of clamoring for additional pops to be added to the zone, similar to how VW is setup. There was a dev response to this that there were plans to add further systems to the zones and they didn't want to clog up anymore space, or something along those lines. As mentioned, post was a long time ago, so not gonna bother looking for it.

But maybe the mentioned systems are more force popped NMs or other lottery style pops that they didn't want to be near Delve pops.

records of eminence would definitely be an easy way to make this sort of thing more livable and should probably be the way SE goes with it just because a good system that gets implemented is better than a polished system that doesn't. but if we're spitballing here and just talking about adoulin zones, I'd like to see it tied to colonization somehow.

killing the nm drops a KI (pt wide) and an npc is added somewhere in adoulin. when you talk to him with the ki he says something like "holy crap, you slew the jabberwocky? he's been haunting our supply routes for months and we've not been able to smoke him out. hold on there's been a reward on his head for ages." *gives something and colonization rate of the zone is improved*

maybe he gives the drop directly, maybe he gives points towards a drop so as to encourage multiple kills, maybe he lets you pick a drop. mechanically this is like no different than your records of eminence idea, and being more complicated i guess it's technically worse, but i think it would FIT better in adoulin.

I agree some tweaks to the adoulin areas in terms of exploration would be nice. One mechanic I actually enjoy about FFXIV that might work in XI is how Behemoth and Odin FATEs work. They're HNM style in that they only spawn once every 24-72 hours, but they cannot be claimed by a single party, anyone and everyone can partake in the fight. It's actually not unlike Wildskeeper rieves actually, except that the enemies are free roaming and Odin actually spawns in different areas.

The Ulbuka areas are wonderful, vast areas, and when I saw the gigantic throne in Marjami Ravine, I could only assume there would be some beastman king. Maybe there still will be.

Yah, great example i forgot. The Beastmen "outpost" type areas are rather empty feeling the most. They look like they house Beastmen Kings/gods... but they're just empty and lifeless as the other areas.

Though, It could work as a WKR type roaming battle... the rewards could be dished out similar to a WKR, or they could have a point/item system like Skirmish... Either way, if they did introduce these types of NMs, they should not be the only ones... normal NMs like i line out should be added alongside them, or as well eventually.