Suggestions to improve Ambuscade

[Fae]

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Tribox never has and never will mean illegal tools or cheating, wat.

None of my comments were directed at you, I was relating personal experiences to counter your personal experiences. The only one aggressive in any form here is you, especially with name calling. I used conjecture and personal experiences to show my point that people will have different personal experiences and that conjecture isn't a valid base for your statements. For which I'm called passive aggressive, egotistical, and that I play with cheaters. Thanks for that

If they lessen the enfeebles and the number of tp moves, it objectively makes it easier. Saying it's cheesy just makes it sound like you're trying to pass it off and make it a problem with the game instead of thinking of things you could do to beat it, which for many is actually the joy and fun to be found in it whatsoever. So yes you are asking them to make it easier and your requests if implemented would directly affect the enjoyment me and many friends actually get from the intense fights. Intense isn't meant for pickup groups it's intense and "high pug requirements" is subjective and isn't any better a device than conjecture.

[Zeldar]

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.

[Olor]

Hey, maybe you would find it fun to spend an hour trying to even get people then failing at something you could do solo.... but I don't. I get accolades much faster by just logging in and grinding them out than I would if I waited to find enough people with the right jobs to do it. It is different for folks who are geared enough to do the VD runs that other people who are geared enough do, but for scrubs it's often just faster to solo than to find enough other scrubs with decent gear and decent jobs.

If I felt like I wouldn't be dragging down VD groups, I'd totally join more groups, but if you're just gonna do normal it's not worth the set up time for a group.

I had a lot of fun duoing with a player, and got a lot done with them before, and would do it again, but full groups are usually not worth it for me, especially given how much time it takes to set them up, especially because I generally prefer to play for an hour or two at a time.

And you're totally ignoring the fact that some folks just enjoy soloing. There is nothing wrong with that, and god knows the game pushes most people into doing that most of the time.

As for the event being congested, it's totally artificial, SE could set it up two or three options of different battlefields to use, but they chose not to. That's a dev issue, not a player issue. It's not players' job to decongest content.

Besides which I am on the busiest server and rarely have to wait more than 2 minutes for a run, usually I get in on the next number so I don't get this argument that congestion is so bad. I just don't do it on the first day it comes out.

[Zeldar]

Olor I doubt you are a scrub.

This is not Final Fantasy 1-10, 12, and variation of 13, or 15. It is not a solo game. It was not designed to be a solo game. The former developers and the current developers make content for the game based on what the game is : a social mmorpg. So you can't log into a game meant to be multiplayer and say " I want to play solo, so tailor-make this multi-player game around soloists!" It is a multi-player game. Would you lobby the Olympic committee to give a solo option to all of the team sports and change the rules to accomodate people who want to play alone? Then why are you trying to do it to a multi-player game?

[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.

[Castanica]

People really need to drop the solo / teamup arguments, solo players are never going to stop wanting to solo. The game has a large number of gimpy / unskilled players who don't feel comfortable joining up. At the start of every month there will be congestion. You simply have to deal with this, it is never going to change.

Also I see people complaining about players soling in-game a lot, if people do this to you report them for harassment. I guarantee you they will get in trouble for it.

[Diavolo]

Really though, I was farming reives in 2013 because I quite enjoyed them, and getting capes all the time for free. It wasn't difficult. And the crystals were always easy to get too.

As for teaming up, nobody on my LS wants to do Ambuscade, because they don't need the Armour Sets, and the cape grind is excessive just for a cape. I think Ambuscade is totally worth grinding if you want the 119 Armour sets, then it totally makes sense to throw yourself into it. It just feels silly doing all that work for +10 STR on a cape.

I work odd hours, don't really have a normal log-in time, the server is usually quiet. For me it is just more convenient to solo, or duo, rather than try to organise my real life around steady group content.

So I wasn't really saying that soloing is the problem, its just that I found the amount of zoning and killing empty mobs and repeating it, was actually making me feel sadface.

I'm more excited about the upcoming Sunbreeze Festival than I am about further Ambuscade cape grinds. Maybe its just me, Lol.

Well, I personally far preferred Adoulin JSE cape farming to Ambuscade cape farming for the simple fact that it was open world content that could be done in a number of different zones. I loathe the idea of funneling the entire server into a town with a small number of available battlfields and forcing them to bounce back and forth between zones in a game poorly equipped to handle it - losing private/party/linkshell chat lines every time I or someone I'm talking to has to zone drives me a bit crazy. Still, I think it's unfair to compare how quickly you farmed up Adoulin capes with their Ambuscade counterparts, especially if you're choosing to go at this content alone. I made the case for server merges plenty of times, even now that I'm on Asura, so if you're going to tell me one of the reasons you're stuck going that route is because the server is quiet you probably know what I'm going to say.

That said, I joined the group of players that stopped taking part in Ambuscade a couple of months ago, and not for a lack of incentives. I still have plenty of gear/capes I'd like to obtain, I just won't keep throwing myself at that content this way every month. I'd far prefer it if the monthly time limit could be removed with the choice to work towards whichever set of gear we wanted and allowed us to reset the Hallmarks/Gallantry/gear set when we were ready. Maybe something to consider now that we've gone through all the gear sets at least once.

[Jile]

The game has a large number of gimpy / unskilled players who don't feel comfortable joining up.

Not to mention some of the best geared people in the game are setup specifically to solo, not because of their lack of social skills or inept gear but because they like to do things solo that normally takes a group of people to kill.

(I have to admit I wish Avesta still posted his solo videos or the videos of his alt account but thats another topic)

[Rooj]

You all need to come to terms with the fact that not playing with PUGs is a mistake. A big one. The positives far outweigh the negatives. I don't mean choosing PUGs over your friends. Basically any normal person is going to ask their LS for members first before shouting. Yes, you need to occasionally deal with either a rude player or a bad player. It's really not that big of a deal though. It's pretty simple to ignore someone and not say anything at all when someone's being a doofus in chat. A bad player is harder to deal with. I recently had to politely kick a THF from my VD Ambu group that was in sparks gear. There were no tears or drama. I simply stated that their gear/damage wasn't up to par and I was going to find a replacement. Nothing wrong with that and I don't think the THF thought so either (though they never said a word). You're only screwing yourself by being so sensitive and over exaggerative - no one actually believes that "every time" you join a group with PUGs, that it performs badly or there is some poophole in it that ruins the game for you.

Next, this "my gear isn't good enough" crap in regards to content with F I V E different difficulty levels. Lol. Having returned to the game a few months ago and having to walk up the gear treadmill myself, I had no problem getting i119 before attempting Ambuscade. However as a RDM, who needs more equipment sets than any other job in the game, I didn't yet feel comfortable doing the highest tiers of Ambuscade. So I shouted for Normal Ambuscade. And guess what? People were interested. The whole benefit of content like Ambuscade is that you can go for what ever difficulty you THINK you can beat, and then adjust accordingly. If your group seems weak, lower it. If it seems strong, raise it.

There are other people, who are also uncomfortable for any number of reasons of doing VD or even D Ambuscade. Some people are just naturally uncomfortable when performing in front of others. Some people want the best possible gear they can get before attempting content (I've made this POINTLESS mistake so many times in the last 18 years), and some people just want to do content that is a little easier. If you don't even attempt to reach out to these people, that's no one's fault but your own.

Oh and one last thing, @ "most people only play with their friends." Wrong. A lot, sure, but not most. Then again, I don't play on Zzzombie servers.