Suggestions to improve Ambuscade

[Stompa]

The event is made much less "spammy" if you team up. It is also faster, easier, and more rewarding. They flat out said they designed it this way intentionally to promote team play. The guys that are on this thread complaining about the nature and design of the event are the ones that are also saying "I like to solo or duo" Well , ok....but there are a few things about that I hope you realize. First, its so much slower. Slower kills, a lot less rewards, and no gallantry. Second, YOU are the ones congesting the event and creating a NEED for the "monotonous" nature of obtaining the KI. You are taking twice as long or longer to kill it than a party, but taking up the same amount of room. Team up....get more rewards , faster rewards, and have more fun actually interacting with people. Yeah I know, you always have excuses and just glaze over my suggestions the same way teenagers do when an adult offers words of wisdom. If you took the time and initiative to put them into action rather than argue so much about it, you would have a much easier time, and maybe even a little fun.

And yes, the cape augmenting is just silly. I got forum banned for a while for calling them out on it in my usual not-so-nice way.

About this whole "team up" thing. Most people run with regular groups, people who they know and trust. If you're going to be hitting a VDmode battle, and your regular friends are online, you're going to pick them first, because you know they can be relied on to play specific jobs in a proficient way. Nobody is going to pick up random strangers for VDmode fights if they can use their true and trusted friends instead.

And this is where it all breaks down. I've been running with the same group since 2004, we have enjoyed great success in many streamlined lowman battles for over a decade. And they don't want to do Ambuscade. At all. Nobody on my LS or friend-list needs any of the Ambuscade armours. And they feel that grinding Ambuscade just for capes is a waste of time.

This means that I would be joining PUGs, with all the fun-and-laughter that we associate with PUG runs. That is assuming there even are any PUGs, and that other people are not just spamming VDmode with their tried-and-trusted static groups. Then we also have to assume that I have the job required by the PUG, which is quite an assumption as I have focused on specific jobs which are not currently "trending" in the mainstream game.

So the whole "join a group" is very nice and all, but it is actually far more complicated than that. And for me, soloing is simpler. I don't see the solo / party thing being an issue with Ambuscade, to me the issue is that the loot system is a "bundle offer" where you have to earn lots of points because you're getting full 119 armour sets bundled together with your pieces of cape thread. That system is great if you actually want the armours and the cape stuff, but if you only want the cape stuff - then no amount of partying is going to make you feel that the system is rewarding you. Every month I'm leaving the armour sets totally unclaimed at the NPC, even with 15k points built up. This means I'm earning a lot of stuff that I never wanted, and it is quite obvious to me that the cape augment items are not worth as much as lvl 119 armour sets, so I'm doing extra work for the "bundle deal" even though I just wanted some cape dyes lol.

[Jile]

Nobody is going to pick up random strangers for VDmode fights if they can use their true and trusted friends instead.

So much this, in fact, that I'd rather solo runs than use pickup groups.