FFXI dying or in a dry spell?

[Sparthos]

Long story short OP, SE has been phoning in the updates since Abyssea. Seekers of Adoulin is basically the island on the horizon and until the ship docks you've got plenty of seawater to look at in the meantime. Perhaps you'll see a few seabirds, a rock or some floating debris but anything of note? Nope.

Voidwatch ended with 3 lazily thrown together battlefields and a "ultimate zerg" battle in Provenance Watcher that completely went backwards in terms of risk/reward from Shinryu, Dynamis is a money maker but is solo content that's more about hitting procs than bringing friends to participate in something and everything from that point has been designed around this philosophy:

How can we stall the playerbase?

SE time and time again rather create content that is designed around arbitrary caps than simply allowing individuals to have fun and gain rewards in the process. Instead of content designed to be fun, what you get are thrown together rehash designed to say "we released something" instead of content that is addictive in the sense that the fun keeps you returning to the fray and thus building groups becomes fun and active.

Voidwatch? As a healer you're just there to buff.
Tank? lol
Crowd Control? lol
Fisherman? wut
DD? If you're one of the chosen few with buffs perhaps you're having fun.
People in the proc party? ZZZ till HV, EV procs come up.

Things like Einherjar that were fun because of the battlefields that were previous to Odin were completely scrapped because the devs didn't really care to improve upon their original creation but rather chose to churn something out in time for the version update which was simply an Odin+1. Instead of improving upon amphoule rewards (note: here is where you put glow equips SE) or putting drops in chambers for clears all we got was an Odin with rehashed abjs and some marginal +1 Odin gear that largely isn't worth the effort.

Even Meebles is simply a downgrade from the previous Moblin Maze Mongers. Instead of allowing players to create their own battlefields utilizing the previous maze runes and throwing in some rewards relevant for lvl99 what we're left with is a system that is 15mins per day (seriously SE 15mins per DAY???) with varying challenges like dodging enemies, defeating all enemies, fighting boss monsters or surviving for for a period of time and rewards that largely scream "mehhhh".

SE could have recycled virtually dead battlefields (Monarch Linn, Navuko Execution Chamber, Talacca Cove, Ouryu/Bahamut2 arena, Promyvions, Sacrificial Chamber, Throne Room, Bearclaw Pinnacle, unused Tidal Gates, (S) battlefields etc) tossed some monster waves/bosses in and allowed entry at a low cooldown and been moderately successful at keeping people busy without overcrowding being the issue through tokens/points but that'd be too much work.

It's just silly how offbase SE has been with regards to fun and accessible content in their game. All you get are excuses and promises that come to fruition months (if not years) later. It's clear some levels of austerity regarding developmental resources are in effect at SE GHQ and it's affecting their game by taking it away from being about fun and into the direction of roadblocks for the hell of it.

[svengalis]

I think we are just in a dry spell. Abyssea was the best and worst thing to happen to this game. It bought fun, casual and rewarding end game content but at the same time I think the gear was to good and you gained it to fast. A double edge sword so to speak.

Alot of people say Abyssea isn't end game but you gain end game weapons and gear that can be used for end game so how can it not be end game content? It's still the only content most people do now. Search any Abyssea zone.

[Afania]

I recently came back. SoA was too much temptation and things went really good for awhile. Now it seems you can hear the crickets chirp most days.

Lvling is done mostly solo as book burns are few, even the FC pts have come to virtually a stop. VW /sh have become few and far between (took me 2 months to get the 3 cities and Im still stuck on Jeuno 1 for progression, the other paths I have no hope for). Havent heard 1 /sh for meeble burrows yet or any other form of endgame. Nearly impossible to get ppl for CoP, ToAU, WotG missions and so on. Even empy item and seal pts are nearly impossible to fill. I have tried setting up pts for all the above and after at least an hr I give up.

Where the heck is everyone?

Many of players already finished those and just chill/waiting for SoA/go to 14.

If you want to do all those storymission/seal pt/city VW, you need connections to find those still needs, and somehow get them together. Or have a LS that can help you with those.

Note that most of the things you mentioned can be duoed/trioed or even solo. So most of the older players if they needed it, they just do it with a mule or close friend. CoP ToAU missions can mostly solo. Seal pt you don't need perfect yellow proc, just keep killing it if your pt can't fill up. Most of the players all have their own group/close friend/mule to do those easy stuff and won't /shout for it, that's why you don't see those /shout. Same for meeble/legion, majority of players do meeble with a static and don't need to /shout, legion if you /shout for member you're just increasing the chance of failing. WoE only JP would do it, and Nyzul most ppl do with a static and don't /shout either.

If you want to get things done easier, I suggest you lv a solo job or get a mule. BST, BLU or NIN are good job to have for lowman and solo if you still need abyssea pt or missions.

[Afania]

Voidwatch? As a healer you're just there to buff.
Tank? lol
Crowd Control? lol
Fisherman? wut
DD? If you're one of the chosen few with buffs perhaps you're having fun.
People in the proc party? ZZZ till HV, EV procs come up.

I don't agree with this......I'm not trying to argue that whether VW is fun or not since it's subjective, but I disagree with that only DDs "have fun" everyone else ZZZ besides buff/proc.

Healer just there to buff? So basically your DD will never lose HP from nukes and spikes, never get para, never get slowed, never get slept, never use soul eater?

Ppl in proc pt can still DD. BLM can still nuke and deal dmg, BLU NIN can all deal dmg if it's not higher tier. It's really your choice if you choose to ZZZ until a proc is called. But BLM, BLU and NIN in proc pt can do exactly the same as DDs in DD pt, that is to deal dmg.

[Sp1cyryan]

FFXI has been dying since 2002. Why do you people continue to ask this question day after day, month after month, year after year, decade after, oh wait it has only been one.

Yup a game that has practically now reached the level of being timeless is merging all the servers tomorrow night and turning them off next week.

No matter what is added or buried by new content this game has something special about it that can not be touched. Enough with these idiotic "is FFXI dying" threads.

Actually, while I am at it. So what? What if SE came out and said in a month they are turning off game? Should you stop playing it before then? The answer is yes only if you are addicted rather than just enjoying it. Also, where are you going to go? Fourteen? Nothing is like FFXI so the question is moot and has no bearing on anything whatsoever.

If you knew the end of the world was coming this December would you go out and commit suicide?
No, just about all of us wouldn't.

[Chocobits]

"As soon as you're born you start dyin'. So you might as well.. have a good time!"

I will agree wholeheartedly that this game is not newbie friendly. I have played WoW, Ether Saga, Perfect World, TERA, Guild Wars, Guild Wars 2, Ragnorak, and others..

Not 1 of those games listed is less newb friendly than FFXI. Even FFXIV, being brand spanking new, completely devoid of content, glitchy as hell, un-fun as crap, and more zone/scenery rehashed than anything in FFXI.. even all of that notwithstanding, FFXIV was way way more newb friendly than FFXI.. a game that's been around for a decade, received multiple patches an expansions, and had forums (these very same in fact) created to receive and process (lul) player feedback..

I think the faults of this game have been beaten to death so many times that we can recap them in a few sentences. So let's do that:

A) No explanations, tutorial quests or much instruction at all given to players when creating a new character.

B) Quest progression is a blind process. Not that we need to be led by the hand like so other MMO's, but in order to solve quests on your own without an FAQ would require you to have a photographic memory of the dialogue of every NPC in the game.. most quests don't even spell out a zone, particular monster, or eventual destination. It's a lot of "I heard a rumor of a rabbit. Find me a rabbit that rabbits more than other rabbits!"

C) Lack of reasoning or strong storyline in dialogue. Take genkai quests. "Hey whippersnapper.. I know I'm just a random old pedophile lounging around this wishing fountain day in and day out.. but if you visit the inner depths of every beastmen stronghold, collect items from high level monsters, brave the wintry evils of the north, and then trade seals to random people around the globe for no reason.. something might happen!"

D) Grindcore (not to be confused with hardcore). Grindcore was all content pre-ToAU. Exp became a bit less grindcore with ToAU except that it was just grindcore at an accelerated pace. The process for NMs, camping, claiming (if possible vs bots), or force spawning NMs with low drop rates and dealing with lotting rights/DKP that casual players couldn't achieve.. Abyssea came out and it was a breath of fresh air for a bit. Yeah, the gear was too strong and we got it too fast, but FINALLY we got some joy! Goals that we could actually accomplish! And then Voidwatch.. lol.. Un-fun content, decent to amazing rewards, that we repeated again and again not because of great content but because of great rewards with appalling distribution. There's a difference between spamming content because it's fun and spamming content because you have no other content.

E) Lack of updates. As in, not just lack of patches for fixes, adding content, etc, but just a complete lack of communication from the devs to the players before these forums were established, which should have been in 2002/2003.. No other game laughed off its customers for as long as FFXI did.. until they left en masse (get it, En Masse?)

F) Xenophobia. The idea of mixed nationality servers and the autotrans function seemed awesome.. until the rest of the free world realized that Japan hates them/considers them stupid, and that even the devs and the company hate them, think of them as stupid or of having opinions that should be dismissed.. oh and that being non-national means they should have to pay more monthly for the game or otherwise have easy payment options taken away from them.

And sadly I think I could probably carry on all the way to Z) but A-F is enough that most people would (and probably should) avoid starting this game. Those of us in the know and already leveled and hardened against the harshness of the game and its devs can shrug it off.

The only thing new players need to know is this: Devs drive expensive luxury vehicles that are powered by a sodium-combustion engine that runs off of the tears of the playerbase.

[Teraniku]

Where the heck is everyone?

Usually hit a downslide this time of year as people are starting to gear up for the Holidays and such, and don't have time to play, so they cancel their account for a while. They could be looking for the shiny new pretty MMO, or they could be getting in time to play City of Heroes before it goes bye-bye at the end of next month.

[Afania]

Not 1 of those games listed is less newb friendly than FFXI. Even FFXIV, being brand spanking new, completely devoid of content, glitchy as hell, un-fun as crap, and more zone/scenery rehashed than anything in FFXI.. even all of that notwithstanding, FFXIV was way way more newb friendly than FFXI.. a game that's been around for a decade, received multiple patches an expansions, and had forums (these very same in fact) created to receive and process (lul) player feedback..

I think the faults of this game have been beaten to death so many times that we can recap them in a few sentences. So let's do that:

A) No explanations, tutorial quests or much instruction at all given to players when creating a new character.

B) Quest progression is a blind process. Not that we need to be led by the hand like so other MMO's, but in order to solve quests on your own without an FAQ would require you to have a photographic memory of the dialogue of every NPC in the game.. most quests don't even spell out a zone, particular monster, or eventual destination. It's a lot of "I heard a rumor of a rabbit. Find me a rabbit that rabbits more than other rabbits!"

C) Lack of reasoning or strong storyline in dialogue. Take genkai quests. "Hey whippersnapper.. I know I'm just a random old pedophile lounging around this wishing fountain day in and day out.. but if you visit the inner depths of every beastmen stronghold, collect items from high level monsters, brave the wintry evils of the north, and then trade seals to random people around the globe for no reason.. something might happen!"

D) Grindcore (not to be confused with hardcore). Grindcore was all content pre-ToAU. Exp became a bit less grindcore with ToAU except that it was just grindcore at an accelerated pace. The process for NMs, camping, claiming (if possible vs bots), or force spawning NMs with low drop rates and dealing with lotting rights/DKP that casual players couldn't achieve.. Abyssea came out and it was a breath of fresh air for a bit. Yeah, the gear was too strong and we got it too fast, but FINALLY we got some joy! Goals that we could actually accomplish! And then Voidwatch.. lol.. Un-fun content, decent to amazing rewards, that we repeated again and again not because of great content but because of great rewards with appalling distribution. There's a difference between spamming content because it's fun and spamming content because you have no other content.

E) Lack of updates. As in, not just lack of patches for fixes, adding content, etc, but just a complete lack of communication from the devs to the players before these forums were established, which should have been in 2002/2003.. No other game laughed off its customers for as long as FFXI did.. until they left en masse (get it, En Masse?)

F) Xenophobia. The idea of mixed nationality servers and the autotrans function seemed awesome.. until the rest of the free world realized that Japan hates them/considers them stupid, and that even the devs and the company hate them, think of them as stupid or of having opinions that should be dismissed.. oh and that being non-national means they should have to pay more monthly for the game or otherwise have easy payment options taken away from them.

And sadly I think I could probably carry on all the way to Z) but A-F is enough that most people would (and probably should) avoid starting this game. Those of us in the know and already leveled and hardened against the harshness of the game and its devs can shrug it off.

The only thing new players need to know is this: Devs drive expensive luxury vehicles that are powered by a sodium-combustion engine that runs off of the tears of the playerbase.

None of the problem listed are OP's problem though and idk why you bring them up. OP's problem is that he/she can't find anyone to pt with to do stuff.

That's more of a problem of at this point of time, majority of content, besides ADL/Odin/legion/VW, are too solo/duo friendly. If you only have none solo/duo friendly job, don't have mule, and don't have close friend to do those stuff, or if you insist to get a full pt to do everything, then you're just going to have a very hard time and it can't be helped.

When most of the stuff can be done solo or with 2 ppl, you're just not going to see ppl try to make bigger party for it. /Shout takes time, getting everyone on together takes time, so why spend all those time when you can just solo/duo on another job?

It's not necessary a bad thing, back then if you don't have 3~4hr of playtime, you can't get shit done. Making EXp pt takes time, making CoP mission pt is painful, so does making limbus/salvage pt and so on. Now that majority of FFXI playerbase have a job and family, most of them aren't going to spend 4~6hrs a day in this game, and would rather be able to get shit done whenever they're on without having to making a full pt of 6 ppl. Unlike now you can just log on and do a mission or seal NM whenever you want.

Well thats fan-freakin-tastic if you wanna lvl bst. But say she likes and wants to play brd or whm one of the many no-so-great solo jobs out there.

If someone insist to play BRD and WHM without a mule or close friend, then it's that person's choice. But by picking this choice, it's just making his/her life harder due to having to find more ppl if he/she insist to play that job. Either you lv a solo/duo friendly job so you can get shit done easier, or deal with harder life and play BRD and WHM, and deal with the consequences. That's life

I already gave suggestion to solve OP's problem, either lv a solo friendly job and don't try to fill up a full pt via /shout, or work ass out of your connection to get full pt(but not by /shout if no reply)if you insist to BRD WHM.

[saevel]

Largely we're at an "in-between" time in FFXI right now. Previously was the Tanaka inspired insanity of hamster wheels and doing anything to artificially extend the life of content. New guy / new ideas but it's going to take awhile to implement properly and it seems he's waiting for the next expansion as a vehicle for a new direction. This is good and bad, bad in that we're left with the Tanaka era sh!t burger content (Legion / Voidwatch / Einerjar / NNI / ect..) as the only thing available, good in that it gives them time to fix things and properly prepare for newer content that it's a sh!t burger.

Meebles is an interesting idea, one that most people completely miss. It's not so much "15m per day" but a once per week 75m dungeon crawl that ends with a boss battle. It's pretty clear it was designed for weekly statics, everyone has one pheromone on them and four saved up, then once per week they do a clear on a wing and take on the boss. You can do one boss per week and if your struggling you can spend extra time getting bonus buffs. The rewards are severely lacking though, some are ~ok~ but most are just trash. This is where SE messed up the most, they should of put better rewards inside the event to make it attractive. If they were to just increase the stats slightly on the gear (1~2 per stat) then it would of actually been attractive, as it stands their side-grades or flat out down-grades to other somewhat easily to obtain gear.

[scaevola]

A friend of mine actually has been working on an empy for awhile since he needs glavoid, he said the easiest/fastest way he found to get it done is to gold box farm the KI and then just brew them til you get 50 drops.

Absurd.

Why is it absurd? Getting the cruor for enough brews to get 50 glavoid shells (I am currently doing the same with Isgebind hearts) takes a long-ass time. Still, we've been getting cruor for 2 years now; what else was I supposed to do with it?

I think FFXI is, by design, more equipped to handle extended lulls in content than most games, because it can always fall back on RMEs to keep us occupied. But I also think too long a lull is potentially dangerous, because too many people actually getting RMEs results in a huge stratification of power among players that's essentially impossible to balance around when the new content's actually ready to be released.