Let Producer Matsui Know How He Should Catch Up on 2 Years!

[Zoux]

Hello Matsui,

Final Fantasy XI has come a long way. In getting to where it is today a lot of changes was done to the game, some that was met with high regards, some that was not needed, some that are yet to be, and some that was met with a lot of criticism. I want to point out 3 major game changing implementations that was done to the game and want to see their relevance be reassess for this new level 99 cap era. Here are the three changes below and the links to them.

http://www.playonline.com/pcd/update...B1/detail.html
"The damage and accuracy of a player’s ranged attack are now calculated based on the distance of the player from the monster. This determination varies from weapon to weapon, as does the ideal distance for maximum damage. In addition, the higher the monster’s level is with regard to the player, the less damage will be dealt with a ranged attack."

http://www.playonline.com/pcd/update...N1/detail.html
"An accumulative magic resistance effect has been implemented for monsters that /check as "impossible to gauge."

http://www.playonline.com/pcd/update...G1/detail.html
"The following adjustments have been made to two-handed weapons:
- Two-handed weapons will now receive larger benefits from a character’s attributes, and will also inflict more damage when facing higher-level opponents or enemies with high defense."

I want these past changes made to the game to be reassess for their relevance in the current state of the game. Most of these changes were made in regards to an level 75 cap era with no foresight into the effects these changes might have on the new level 99 cap era. Undo the two-handed weapons update and you revive the true tank class of the game, Paladins and Ninjas. Low accuracy against high leveled monster was what made Paladins and Ninja such successful tanks in the level 75 cap era. The less damage a job can inflict due to low accuracy situations means the more enmity a Paladin and Ninja can build and maintain since they relied not only on damage but spells.

A distance penalty impose on just range weapons should also be impose on other weapons as well since you can still be about 4 taru steps away from a monster and still hit it with a melee weapon.

A lance, scyth and great axe should do less damage if next to a mob, since you would in theory be hitting it with the shaft of the weapon and not the blade. These weapons should do max damage at the max distance a melee weapon will hit a monster which is about 4 taru steps.

Great swords damage should also be penalize if a player is right next to a monster since the force of swing is landing near the hilt of the blade and not the tip or mid section of the blade. Max damage distance should be same as that of a lance, scyth and great axe.

Daggers and clubs should also be penalize if not next to the mob since you would not be able to hit a monster with such a short blade or blunt if was not next to you. Max damage would be at 1 taru step or next to the mob.

One-handed axes, sword and staves should be the only weapons not penalize because their effectiveness are useful at any location in which you can hit the monster. Damage should varied little from 1 taru step to 4 taru step from the monster.

Therefore if such a thing as distance penalty is to be impose on range weapons you can in theory impose it on the other weapon types in the game as well. This should open up new strategy as well since everyone would have position themselve in combat and not just mindlessly engage a mob.

Magic damage should be able to do full damage to "impossible to gauge" monsters as it already do to normal type monster. Unlike melee characters mages do damage with spells and are always limited by their manapool. Sure you can do a lot of damage in a short burst, but then your left standing on a empty manapool or eating dirt from those short burst or resting to gain back mana. Therefore this "accumulative magic resistance" should have never been impose on magic type damage to begin with. A group should always look to its black mages, and scholars for their main damage source, not to their melee's.

These past 3 major changes in the game are what I want change. If you cannot change it then please reassess their relevance to the new level 99 cap era.

Thanks for reading,

[Babekeke]

If Mr Matsui is really going to look into posts with the most likes, then the enmity system has to be changed. Looking at the posts in this thread, those that ask for changes to the enmity system far outweigh the number of likes gained by any other thread.

[Authority]

Remove the rare status of Instant Warp Scrolls, and let them stack to 99 please!!!!!!!!

[Smokenttp]

That was not an inventation to a debate. The producer said he wanted suggestions of what we would like to see, and I would like to see Square not back slide FFxi into a dark time in leveling.

Also, recap CoP? Seriously? I'd rather see them remove the caps on the few places they still exist.

i know that it was not an invitation and i am well awere that you can ask what you want its in the rules,but i wanted to see to why do you think it would be a bad ideia, the called dark age of leveling was actually when people enjoyed more the game even tough alot of things in the game where exagerated and broken (im not saying it was perfect as i recognize it had many flaws) like low exp output, favoritism of certain jobs in exp partys, but the game overall was actualy more well enjoyed by the player base. well you dont need to answer this if you dont want and sorry if imade you upset with something but i still am very curious about the reason it would be bad (mostly because i m finishing my game design course in college so i tend to be a bit pick about game related stuff so sorry about asking about it too much).

The devs are giving us a chance to make significative changes to the game and rebalance somethings so healthy debates would only help on that (especially on a place they can see) as long as they remain healty.

[Trisscar]

The devs are giving us a chance to make significative changes to the game and rebalance somethings so healthy debates would only help on that (especially on a place they can see) as long as they remain healty.

I won't say that it was all bad, I have had some truly epic experience parties in the past. But as anyone can tell you, those were the exception rather than the rule.

And true, a lot of it was the fault of the player base rather than the development. However, the development was a large part of the problem.

Before level sync and FoV/GoV you had to deal with small camps that had annoying mobs that respawned too slowly and had too few spawns to support sustained experience chains. Colibri mimicked white/black magics, which caused Black Mages to be instantly and near universally be rejected for parties. And everything else in Whitegate areas had high resistance to magic, meaning Black Mages were considered a waste of a party spot.

Aggressive mobs guarding the entry way into experience camps, sometimes breaking parties before they even gotten a single kill. Bounty Hunters engaging parties minding their own business, elementals wrecking havoc because the White Mage is doing what they should be doing, and on.

[Tamarsamar]

If Mr Matsui is really going to look into posts with the most likes, then the enmity system has to be changed. Looking at the posts in this thread, those that ask for changes to the enmity system far outweigh the number of likes gained by any other thread.

They have already stated that they plan to reassess the enmity system alongside the release of Seekers of Adoulin, so that their concept for a new tank job isn't dead on release.

[Prrsha]

Dear Akihiko Matsui,

I reactivated my account just to post this.

I've have been a proud member of the FFXI community since 2003. I was here through its best times and its worst. I have never taken a break from FFXI until now. A few months ago, I had enough. All of the exploits, cheating, and just lack of attention that the game has received, nailed the coffin shut to me. I would play the game again happily (and I assume many old timers who quit long ago would) if the following were to change:

1.) Re-apply the level caps that were removed from CoP content... that or change the entire expansion to cater to people that are level 99. It's just way too easy now and is wasted filler. My vote would to re-apply the level cap, since it takes less development time and allows low level gear to be useful again (and have a value on the AH). It also allows new players to take part in storyline content at a lower level. Right now, in order for a low level player to "help" the general community, he or she must be leveled to 75+. CoP was a step in the right direction in intent.

2.) If you are going to have player content for all levels, you need to have more inventory space. Allow a larger variety of armor to be stored at NPCs (for free) so people can have easy access to that gear in a quick and efficient manner. It allows for less downtime for low level events.

3.) Re-vamp low level content like eco-warrior and garrison to give better rewards. The better the "shiny" the more people it will attract to the event. A lot of past content has been neglected. Chocobo raising, pankration, Moblin Maze Makers... They were added but never enhanced to change with the times. Please breathe new life in to these old events. It's easier to enhance what you have already made then to keep adding new content.

4.) This is a BIG one. Remove the current AFK leveling exploits. People sitting in Gusgen mines AFK in my party is not my idea of a fun way to level. [sarcasm]You might as well remove leveling all together and just click on a "create level 75 character" button.[/sarcasm] The easiest way to remedy this problem is to tone down GoV. I know it means nerfing it, but it is for the betterment of the community and forces more interaction between players. Also allow access to Abyssea for level 70+. That way people can't leach and power level there AFK. We need more players behind the controls, not less. It makes for a dead "world". Please, the exp system from level 10-75 is just plain broken due to the reasons above. If that glaring problem is fixed, it will go a long way to make older content "meaningful" once again. Older quests revolve around low level rewards and people just won't do them, because there is no need for the gear when you can sit naked and AFK in a Gusgen mines alliance.

5.) Take swifter actions on those who cheat. If you let the game sit idle and take no action against people who cheat, it just makes them think it is "ok" to do so. Most gamers do not like cheating or cheaters. Either fix the issue that is causing the people to cheat or remove the cheaters. The gaming community will be a better place with them gone. The reputation of FFXI is at stake. You won't get many new players if the game has a reputation as a haven for cheaters.

In closing, I know my words may be radical and harsh but the game needs a big change right now. A harsher critique is better then a passive one because it points out existing flaws and how they can be fixed. I love FFXI and I miss what it was (heck I met my current RL wife of 4 years there. FFXI does mean a lot to us both). There has been a lot of neglect to the game and it shows, but with enough tlc it can be a shining gem once again!

Sincerely,

Prrsha and Hellkatt from Phoenix

Edit: P.S. Please overhaul the macro UI and add more lines. I think you'll find little arguments that it is needed. Also, tiny status ailment symbols next to every player's name would be helpful to determine which enfeebs they have on if you miss them in your chat logs.

[Smokenttp]

I won't say that it was all bad, I have had some truly epic experience parties in the past. But as anyone can tell you, those were the exception rather than the rule.

And true, a lot of it was the fault of the player base rather than the development. However, the development was a large part of the problem.

Before level sync and FoV/GoV you had to deal with small camps that had annoying mobs that respawned too slowly and had too few spawns. Colibri mimicked white/black magics, which caused Black Mages to be instantly and near universally be rejected for parties. And everything else in Whitegate areas had high resistance to magic.

Aggressive mobs guarding the entry way into experience camps, sometimes breaking parties before they even gotten a single kill. Bounty Hunters engaging parties minding their own business, elementals wrecking havoc because the White Mage is doing what they should be doing, and on.

pretty much agreed with every thing here, altough there i did not sugested a full fly back to 200X i tried to keep the good aspects that went improved over the years (and yes i know i said to nerf gov but thats because pretty much it brought abyssea to the out world.i just fell that the level progression went by too fast and ppl tends to get lazy in this kind of pts).

btw do you think i should separate those ideas in diferent threads? i mean some ppl are telling me that there are some ideias they like there but they are not hitting like because they dont agree with some other idea.

[Authority]

Dear Akihiko Matsui,

I reactivated my account just to post this.
Sincerely,

Prrsha and Hellkatt from Phoenix

You probably shouldn't have done that. Putting back unnecessary restrictions is silly. You have no idea how fun it is being able to follow the storyline along and solo it all with ease. It puts you at the focus and allows you to make smooth transitions from one mission to the other.

Leveling is fast, but you know what? I find the focus of the game is no longer leveling every job to 99, but gearing them up and playing each one at its max potential. This kind of decision makes sense for a 10 year old game.

The game the way it is now is very enjoyable for me. If it hadn't evolved the way it did, I probably wouldn't be playing anymore.

[Prrsha]

You probably shouldn't have done that. Putting back unnecessary restrictions is silly. You have no idea how fun it is being able to follow the storyline along and solo it all with ease. It puts you at the focus and allows you to make smooth transitions from one mission to the other.

Leveling is fast, but you know what? I find the focus of the game is no longer leveling every job to 99, but gearing them up and playing each one at its max potential. This kind of decision makes sense for a 10 year old game.

The game the way it is now is very enjoyable for me. If it hadn't evolved the way it did, I probably wouldn't be playing anymore.

Everyone is intilted to their own opinion. The same game's drastic changes that kept you in game, drove away my wife and I. I think soloing is boring imho and I love to interact with other gamers. I think all voices should be heard.

Also people who "quit" from the changes aren't going to be able to post on this thread. Just my 2g and my RL money.