Suggestion: Break the game, SE

[Aquilla]

This is precisely why the game needs a shake-up.

Vets have done it all. Vets leveled bst to 75 solo-grinding, did the sc+mb stuff, did the land kings, etc. Newer people may not have experienced that, but they did aby/VW and played that way.

Nobody wants to go back to the bad old days, but SE is the embodiment of inertia. If everything was working beautifully, we wouldn't have a shrinking populace -- and it is shrinking. Now isn't the time to pussy-foot around with tweaks -- it's time to give the game something groundbreaking.

What I'm worried about is that the recent additions to the game -- Neo-Nyzul, specifically and this:

Mocchi: Oh snap! These stats are nuts! STR and AGI +8, attack, accuracy, subtle blow, haste +4%, DOUBLE ATTA…

Those stats are not nuts. They're okay. -.-

[Shipp]

If everything was working beautifully, we wouldn't have a shrinking populace -- and it is shrinking.

Every MMO that's this old has a shrinking populace. These "tweaks" are not going to bring in any substantial amount of new players.

[Aquilla]

It's an MMO, not a banana. They don't go stale after a few days and the slowly rot off for no reason at all. If there was a will to change, there could be a change and new players and epic lewtz to be had by all.

[Glamdring]

RNG is how every MMO has ever been, including XI. This is not new from abyssea. If you don't enjoy the game, quit. Just don't pretend as though this wasn't how XI always was, to a much worse degree in the past.

didn't say I had a problem with the "dice" (not going to use RNG since that's also the abreviation for ranger), just pointing out that the only real risk left is plain old dumb luck.

[Glamdring]

It's an MMO, not a banana. They don't go stale after a few days and the slowly rot off for no reason at all. If there was a will to change, there could be a change and new players and epic lewtz to be had by all.

no, they DON'T go stale after a few days, but they do after a few years. The root code of the game is just that, the root code. MMOs die because the tech they are designed for becomes obsolete, see any of the 1k+ threads on here about ending PS2 support for that argument.

This game was BEAUTIFUL when it was rolled out, especially compared to WoW, its main competitor. But that was in the day when most players still had analog, not HD, MIGHT have had surround sound and connection speeds were rarely over 768kbps and usually alot less. Any new player looking at FFXI these days will at best describe it as "quaint". There is no way that SE is going to rewrite everything down to as basic as the graphics engine or make servers robust enough to handle modern connect speeds, etc. and without that FFXI is what it is, an antique. THAT'S why we aren't getting new players.

[Aquilla]

Riddle me this, batman: which part of their outdated code was responsible for the fun I and a lot of players had in Aby, and why has it vanished off the matrix? Which bit of code is responsible for the inability to have your own personal chicken in northlands or WoTG?

Code limitations are a stupid excuse. There's nothing wrong with how the game looks -- and I highly doubt that your own admitted lack of challenge is tied to the ability to display glowy bits on your armor.

I've said it before: I am not a game developer, and I don't know jack about developing games. However, forums here and other places on the interwebz have a ton of suggestions how to simplify and add more fun to the game that doesn't require a new graphics engine or overhaul of the servers.

If it was just graphics engines/shiny new tech, then XIV would've ruled the world by now, and not become the epitome of failure in the MMO world.

Squeenix isn't some indie developer without a dime to their name. I am willing to concede that there are hardware limitations. For example, they explained very nicely why we can't have raisega. I don't see how that justifies thinking that str+8agi+8 haste+4% is pants-wettingly amazing by any definition.

[Malamasala]

I'd love more atma content. It was the first time I enjoyed FFXI, and I haven't enjoyed it since. Of course it has less to do with being "overpowered" and more to do with it being the FIRST content that boosted avatars, which have been utterly behind since they were added.

[Aquilla]

Atma was a great idea. Especially synthetics, which rewarded completing old content. I concur!

[Glamdring]

simple, the stuff you are asking for is for keeping current players of a certain mindset. I'll grant you, SE needs to do something to retain players, and for your type maybe setting players to de facto god-mode is it. Me? I'd like an upgrade to risk/reward in content and as some others have commented something where my efforts are rewarded instead of just dumb luck; if I grind it out the drop SHOULD fall, and more than 1% of the time, I simply find that more appealing.

I still maintain that anyone looking at FFXI for the 1st time is just going to look elsewhere, maybe even at 14. 14 seems most lame to long-time players of 11 but if you've never seen what SE can do when they do a GOOD job on a game it doesn't look nearly as bad. Still, there are better games out there than 14, and if I was a person looking at starting out in a fantasy MMO I probably wouldn't be looking at anything in the current SE catalog, no matter WHAT they choose to do here.

[Aquilla]

simple, the stuff you are asking for is for keeping current players of a certain mindset. I'll grant you, SE needs to do something to retain players, and for your type maybe setting players to de facto god-mode is it. Me? I'd like an upgrade to risk/reward in content and as some others have commented something where my efforts are rewarded instead of just dumb luck; if I grind it out the drop SHOULD fall, and more than 1% of the time, I simply find that more appealing.

I still maintain that anyone looking at FFXI for the 1st time is just going to look elsewhere, maybe even at 14. 14 seems most lame to long-time players of 11 but if you've never seen what SE can do when they do a GOOD job on a game it doesn't look nearly as bad. Still, there are better games out there than 14, and if I was a person looking at starting out in a fantasy MMO I probably wouldn't be looking at anything in the current SE catalog, no matter WHAT they choose to do here.

hey, we're more alike than you think^^ for one thing, I would like risk/reward changed a lot. I dislike the utter randomness of drops. I dislike that there are no intermediate rewards -- nothing you can do at 90% of the content if you aren't going for the absolute epicness.

I'm not looking for god-mode. I'm looking for fun and excitement. So are you, and so is everyone else who comes on here to complain.

I think if SE cared enough to try, they could bring in fresh blood and reinvent this game. Will they? I don't know. it ain't exactly the roman empire.