New 99 trials

[Camiie]

For the Empy trials, they should have added a new, higher level set of mobs to Abyssea and required 100 items for the 95 stage and 125 for 99.

I know they decided to make the last 2 Empy trials extra difficult to BALANCE!! the relative ease at which one could reach the 90 stage, but that idea was ridiculous from the start. Real balance would have been to keep the difficulty consistently progressive and make the trials realistically obtainable by those who were able to complete the previous ones. (You know, like what they said the 99 Relic trial was supposed to be.)

If Empys hadn't turned out as difficult to complete as they would have liked, they should have accepted that, learned from their "mistake," and applied that knowledge to future content. Instead, they decided to effectively punish Empy owners for THEIR "mistake." While I'm sure that sits well with players who looked down on Empys for being too easy to obtain, I'm not seeing what it does for people who actually own them and enjoyed the process as it was. Aren't those the people that should be taken into account ahead of everyone else?

If anything needs adjustment it's these trials, but I don't know that there's going to be a poopstorm on this as there was on Relics. It's a shame, as I'm sure that will be required to see changes considered at all.

[Tamoa]

I have to admit I wish empyrean weapon owners had raised more of a shitstorm when the 1500 plates requirement was introduced on the test server, much as relic owners (and non-relic owners too, even) have raised a shitstorm now. Then maybe, just maybe, the number would have been lowered before making it to the live servers. While some of us did indeed voice our discontent, it was generally assumed it was just a placeholder number. I guess the majority of us thought it highly unlikely that the empyrean weapon trials would go 50 - 50 - 75 - 1500 - but boy were we wrong.

The trial wouldn't be so horrible if obtaining the plates had been made a tad bit easier. Of course, in my personal opinion SE could have halved the number of plates required and it still would have been quite the task. But as it is, the amount needed, paired with the complete and utter randomness of drop rate, makes it a task that a lot of lvl 90 weapon owners won't bother with because it's just so discouraging in itself.

Now I know some people have finished the trial already by buying the vast majority of plates, and that's all well and good. I am currently working on 95 Ukon myself, but it's slow going, I have to admit that. I simply do not wish to spend all my online time on making gil to buy plates. I don't want to log on FFXI and feel like I'm going to work. I did do dynamis daily for a few months, but all of a sudden everybody and their brother were spamming dynamis. I got tired of the competition for mobs and the sniping of mobs, and on top of that the currency market nearly crashed and Ru'lude was (and still is) flooded with currency bazaars.

Unfortunately, the price on heavy metal has been rising lately. It used to be fairly easy to find them for 100k per, but not so much anymore. Now they seem to range from 130k to 150k each, and that difference does indeed add up quite fast. So all in all, people will easily spend 100mil+ (and most likely a lot more than that) to upgrade their weapon from 90 to 95, which in itself is ridiculous for the marginal improvement the upgrade offers.

And yes, empyrean weapons are easy to make up until level 90. I don't think a single empyrean weapon owner would deny that. But it's hardly our fault that SE made them that easy to obtain, is it? Do we deserve to get punished by having to grind voidwatch and spend the rest of our online time trying to make money to buy the damn plates, just because the previous trials were easy? I don't think so.

As for the next trial stage, I don't even want to think about it yet. I'm just praying that somehow, somewhere down the line (and fairly soon please SE), steps will be taken to ensure that the items will be easier to obtain. By adding more nms that can drop them, adding pouches, voidwatch points to be exchanged for dross/cinder (and even plates) - anything!



I think this is my longest post ever here on the OF, sorry.

[Vold]

I wish I could jump on the empy trial is bad bandwagon but the fact that I don't own a lv95 because the 1500 metal plate requirement is lol makes it hard for me to care. All I'll say is that Abyssea business seems infinitely easier now to even the most casual of players when compared to lv95 and 99 and... 210 million gil or whatever. Because gil grows on trees!

The bad thing about these trials is that the leap from a lv90 emp to 99 for hundreds of millions of gil is not even remotely the same as the leap from not owning one to owning one. This is where the 95 and 99 trials fail. But it's up to the individual. Do you or do you not want a lv95 and lv99 version of your weapon? And go from there. I'm shocked that we couldn't buy abyssea drops to build them. That's what I figured the trade off with them was - you did leg work for Empyreans if you wanted them. No bazaar buys allowed. Boy that idea sure was dealt with in record time. It almost feels like SE was acknowledging the VW drop system is crap.

[Alerith]

I find the fact that the larger thread with the comrep responses was deleted to be...insulting. The thread wasn't just locked or moderated, it was completely nuked.

Post counts were adjusted and all existence of it seems to have been wiped.

"Delete that thread! We can't let anyone know the players were unhappy."

This is the most disrespectful moderation and Dev team ever.

[Zarchery]

They lowered the requirements in response to player protests. That couldn't possibly mean that they were listening to you guys? No no no. That's not possible. They didn't give you everything you wanted, so clearly they aren't. Best put up a dozen more threads and a couple hundred more posts with titles like "OMG SE YOU GUYS ARE STUPID RETARDS I HATE YOU", then complain about how rude SE is, without a touch of irony.

[Finuve]

They lowered the requirements in response to player protests. That couldn't possibly mean that they were listening to you guys? No no no. That's not possible. They didn't give you everything you wanted, so clearly they aren't. Best put up a dozen more threads and a couple hundred more posts with titles like "OMG SE YOU GUYS ARE STUPID RETARDS I HATE YOU", then complain about how rude SE is, without a touch of irony.

have you read anything, the complaint isnt the number, its the goddamn item
so in that sense, no they didn't listen at all


just like they still havent changed the ridiculous fucking heavy metal plate requirement

[Camiie]

For all those who want to see these trials changed/improved don't let anyone bait you into starting a flamewar so this thread gets closed as well. Just ignore the white knights and trolls and say what needs to be said as politely as possible. Don't give the mods any excuse to close any more threads. If they still get deleted after that, then we'll know for sure what's really going on here.

[wish12oz]

If they still get deleted after that, then we'll know for sure what's really going on here.

It's pretty obvious they're just closing the threads and deleting them to try and make it look like people are happy with the bullshit trials. People already put in enough work for this garbage, why the hell does SE feel the need to continue to punish them.

[Camiie]

It's pretty obvious they're just closing the threads and deleting them to try and make it look like people are happy with the bullshit trials. People already put in enough work for this garbage, why the hell does SE feel the need to continue to punish them.

That theory certainly isn't off the table for me. In fact, it's actually my assumption as well. I just think we need to refrain from giving them any reasons to remove threads other than their own desire to see them removed. We need to be "peaceful demonstrators" so to speak.

[Alerith]

WE ARE THE 99%