Future of FFXI and your approvals/disapprovals to the development team

[Anewie]

So I am a 8 year vet and I was just thinking about how much the game has changed. I was reviewing the New HNM thread and if you read through it, there are a lot of concerns.

As you've all noticed the game has toned down it's player base a lot. A lot of people have quit, both elite and casual players.

The game has done a 180 but the updates are not yet finished or finalised. This is not a suggestion thread. It's more of a voice your opinion/concern/approval/disapproval type thread based on the direction and future direction of the game.


Prior to 2010 Level cap increase -Endgame for Casual/Elite player base: You have Dynamis, Limbus, Nyzul Isle
These events imo were the standard mostly for the more Casual base. They were perfectly aimed at being convienant enough for casual base but challenging enough as well.

Casual player Base gameplay: Garrisons, Beseiged, Campaign, Notorious Monsters,

Elite player base gameplay: Salvage, Sea, High Notorious Monsters,

The Good: The game provided a lot of hefty time/effort for equip that kept even the most casual player dedicated. There was ALWAYS something to do and somewhere to explore. It was anything but boring. Team work was of the biggest priority. It enouraged us to work together in groups and helped establish our Linkshell/group as our own!

The bad: Many people with less playtime could not devote the time/effort needed to consistantly attempt more elite content, this seemed a bit unfair to them. A lot of casual player quit or deactivated their accounts because they couldn't devote time to achieving some of the more higher quaslity gear or taking part in more elite content. Some of the more hefty endgame content was so time consuming or hard, many people resorted to cheating. Salvage drop rates/ HNM spawning. It also was the source of so much drama. Many people resorted to stealing, buying gil and just overall cheating and stepping on another person toes to get what they wanted.


FAST FORWARD to 2010:With the introduction of the Final fantasy XI level cap increase, came a slew of gear/abilities/goals and new monsters!

Both Casual gameplay and casual/elite endgame events were considerred worthless at this point. Although it didn't require much more effort/team work, the rewards seemed diminishing, too easy or irrelevant.

FFXI as a whole atm: Abyssea. Since you can enter Abyssea at lvl 30, most people casual and elite, exp until that point then build an experience point party/alliance and head out. Its pretty easy to get any job lv.90. Abyssea holds gears that are so out of this world amazing, gears obtained through HNMs, Dynamis, Nyzul Isle, Salvage, Sky,Sea, seem almost deserted. They plan to release augments through the amazing trial of magians for those gears though to satisfy those who spent so much time obtaining gear through such methods. Most people don't seem to optimistic that the augments will make it worth it again, to make those events worthwhile on a consistant basis.

The good: The game now benefits all players on a universal level. Many people are very content and happy . It doesn't require large amounts of time or effort for the absolute best. In fact, in its current state, you can obtain an ultimate weapon in a weeks earth time. Almost all content can be done with 3-4 people. Team work is not nessicary but player base is more friendly it seems. If you noticed there is much less drama on BG and the player base seems more kind. You can do anything on your own time without having to worry about the next guy. Even things like Pandemonium Warden, Rani and Absolute Virtue can be consistantly and easily taken down via SHOUTS!

The Bad: Many people in the endgame scene, both casual and elite, seem disssatisfied with the content. These are generally people who devoted more time to the game than others, but also kept the game alive for so long. People who devoted their time to camping notorious monsters as well as people who took a very active and enjoyed the consistancy with salvage/sea. It seems they feel the game and all their accomplishments over the past years have gone to waste. They also feel the game has lost a lot of fun or rush due to content thats too casual.


Sorry for the wall of text! Whether you agree with the above or not, state your opinion about whether or not you're satisfied with current direction of FFXI. Please take time to consider the following:

99 Cap: Once the cap is raised, events and such will be built around that if they already are not in place beforehand. Are you satisfied with endgame primarily aimed at the casual base? Do you want more variety of casual endgame events BESIDES Abyssea? Do you want more content that is aimed at low level events, Such as Garrison etc? Do you want more elite content that will include rare drop rates, long spawn windows or a hefty amount of time and patience? Do you want more elite content that does NOT require hefty amount of time/patience/player skill/long spawn windows?

What do you really want for the direction? What are you strongly against, strongly for and how would it effect you as a player? How would it effect the game as a whole?


Are you someone who doesn't care what they add as long as its versatile/fun and keeps the game alive? A second server wide merge might indicate the player base has continued to fall. PS2 Limitations seem to be holding the game back. There are no current plans to add anymore expansions, and I personally do not see them doing it again in the future.

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My personal opinion (besides the above): I have played FFXI since i was 16! I love that the game has offered me something to do in my freetime. I love that I do not need lots of people to do much anymore. It's nice to see there no drama and more people are working together as a base.

I am a proud member of the older school elite endgame but I enjoyed all of it at one time or another and I still enjoy aspects of abyssea but somethings missing. I find myself being bored with the game and missing the less casual events i enjoyed before.

My playtime varies from casual to "elite" though. Some weeks I can play very often and some months I can barely play at all. In short (lol, i know) I enjoy that I can do abyssea and other things with very little help, I feel freedome to do what I like without having to compete and have someone else beat me or step on my toes. I also miss the endgame LS enviroment where you work as a team and build that foundation with your LS. I miss salvage and camping notorious monsters. It was fun to me to have that rush and I enjoyed competing for claims and farming.

I approve and am very grateful for Abyssea but I disapprove of them building the game around being casual. There should be all types of content of players. Things that require more effort for those who want to to strive to be superior in gear and skill or those who want to keep busy/entertained without it feeling like less fun.

I approve of them to continue to add gear/mobs/areas for abyssea to benefit the casual base but I would like them to focus on balance more so now. Balacing out the current state with a more superior/elite endgame. I would like them to take into consideration how it would effect others and what they can do to counter any issues in regards to the concerns and considerations to everyone. They should take time to look into the versatility of their player base and add events/monsters that might target them so every player type has something they can enjoy and have success in!

A perfect direction in my opinion is that endgame return to its more orignal state but also continue to make abyssea worthwhile so the casual will not feel left our or abandoned. The casual deserve to have ultimate weapons and elite gear without having to compete or deal with long term goals. The player base in general deserves to have options. It shouldn't revolve around one type of player!

If you read this, please contribute but do not flame or turn this into another anti abyssea or anti HNM thread. I would like the devs to take this seriously and if you play FFXI and read this, your opinion should be heard!


Thx!

To BG lurkers: Don't be shy. Speak up!

[Rambus]

abyssea would of been fine if the game was not abyssea only.

just have to wait and see what 95 and 99 brings and if they take anything we said. I personally think it is a waste of space if they do not change limbus, dyna, savage, einherjar, assault to be harder and have an appeal to 99. otherwise you are stuck with unused data ( ps2limtations) so buff it or delete it if you are going to support ps2.

[Soundwave]

So to make the players happy....the new thing-void walkers...have all new sets of armor and hard to get items for the Elite players etc.

Lets just say.....while the causal players in abessya stay happy with af3...The Elite players can find new fun in these new hard areas/bosses.

I would like for some items to take longer to complete or obtain sure, but I really don't miss times before Abyessa were certain people constantly obtain items over and over, looking back on it...some ls members only get about 2-3 items per year in HNMLS with 30-40 people...even if your playtime was 30 hours a week or so.

I'll welcome anything else they have to come, but I hope they make things a bit more challenging however make it more rewarding for a larger group so gear can be a bit more distributed.

p.s.

My name is Rambus In the game. I did not spend 5 years getting a weapon to have it outdone by weapons that takes 1 week

*comfort* I have an unfinished Mythic and really can't find people to complete these quest etc. Its sucky...

[Vold]

They need to keep doing exactly what they are doing but design additional content for the hardcore player, even if that means redoing older content. Gotta cater to them or else. But you shouldn't over cater them...

Too many years were spent catering to the hardcore. The FFXI population suffered because of it. Abyssea will probably keep the masses entertained for some time still so now is the time to design content for the hardcore player. Despite much of Abyssea content being geared towards the hardcore, we see that if you permit them to rush through something, they most certainly will. Ultimately you have to force them into a long time sink as a large group because nothing you design could possibly make them happy otherwise. In other words content that the casual player just cannot realistically do.

You could possibly solve this "problem" with a Abyssea system. It is sort of solved to an extent with +2 upgrades but not really. What I mean is you could take an end game system and make it open to all and still cater to the hardcore player. The most simple example I can give for that is +3 and up empyrean upgrades that only a dedicated linkshell could ever possibly hope to achieve. I know part of the idea behind the level raise was to make end game easier on numbers but the unfortunate truth for SE is there are many oldie linkshells and they tend to stay together, and they need content to do together.

Just don't go ruining everything by designing all end game content from here on out for the hardcore player and requires 18 people. Say it with me: End game content is not exclusively for hardcore players. Abyssea was a huge step in the right direction but nothing is perfect from the word go. What's done is done. Casual players have content that will still last them for some time. Now let's get to work on content for the hardcore player.

[Flunklesnarkin]

I think if abyssea was limited to 2 atmas equipped at a time... and no brews it would have been a lot more fun

[Karbuncle]

I have, and always believe, There should be an equal amount of Hardcore, and Casual Content in FFXI.

Something that every player can access. For instance, I'd say... Nyzul/Assault were "Casual", while Salvage/Einherjar were "hardcore". To a Lesser extent, I'd go to say Einherjar was "Casual" compared to "Salvage" though. Difficulty wise IDK.

I don't think Abyssea will ever truly be obsolete, But i also think by 99 We're going to have a lot more End-game Content as well.

I enjoy what we have, and look forward to what we'll be getting, and i just hope it brings enough balance that everyone has something to enjoy.

[Soundwave]

Something that every player can access. For instance, I'd say... Nyzul/Assault were "Casual", while Salvage/Einherjar were "hardcore". To a Lesser extent, I'd go to say Einherjar was "Casual" compared to "Salvage" though. Difficulty wise IDK.

I like your posts Karbuncle, I would say Einherjar was far more difficult for many reasons due to Lamp entrance, lame choice of random mobs....so many factors could come into play vs your ls...specifically when entering a T3 when you come across your Findlay Dahaks...and ending the run with a KB boss.

The road to 99 will be interesting, so many new things will be changing the game soon. If these Voidwaker areas are much different from abyssea...players will be put back to the challenge I would believe.

[Anewie]

83 views and 6 replies!

No lurker please. We need to voice our opinions!

If you can read through my wall of text, please submit a reply!

THX guys!

[Venat]

I think if abyssea was limited to 2 atmas equipped at a time... and no brews it would have been a lot more fun

brews are the what ruinned abyssea.

[Eldelphia]

I like the reduction in reliance on gil. That's one of the best things about Abyssea. It's killed RMT and I love that. Dynamis only encouraged it, and I loved the event. There are endless tales of people making millions and rmting dyna gil or running away with ls banks. I'm really glad (even as an LS leader) that gil is less important.

On the way though, the crafting market has been hit hard. I would imagine there are a lot of high level crafters who don't touch their crafts anymore. But I think its a necessary evil of reducing RMT. If you can make a ton of gil easily through crafting you encourage gil buying to get a craft to 100 etc etc. And it happened a lot. I levelled Cloth to 100 over years but that's because I wasn't in a hurry and was levelling it as a personal goal. I saw others buy a ton of gil and level crafts in 2 weeks.

In the process of reducing our reliance on buying and selling, you've completely killed ENMs. My suggestion would be to revamp them... Uncap them if you have to and give us some seriously tough fights with unique gear in.

Abyssea is amazing and a lot of fun but hard core players have already beaten everything in it. There has been no depth to plot in recent times. I was really hoping for something more involving after the trailer for Heroes. Getting Sea and completing Cop are still my alltime favourite moments.

I'm getting a bit sick of the policy on zone reuse. It has improved in Heroes but I've never understood why Sea hasn't been given more content. Especially now that its so accessible. Drop PS2 support next year and let us go somewhere else...

Add more levels to Nyzul Isle because the event is fun! Or add another dungeon with random floors/zones which have different scenery. I always hoped NI would be this... so that you'd go up a floor and find yourself in a desert or next floor, in the jungle. In practical terms, make it different dungeon maps and it would be fine. So use Zeruhn mines for example on one floor and King Ramperre's Tomb on another. Then zone down into Den of Rancor or something. Would be fun and an interesting reuse of some of the dungeon areas. Of course Voidwatch may help...

Whilst the changes to Dynamis are welcome, I think the fundamental thing which is missing is a reason to do Dynamis anymore. The armour isn't very good with a few exceptions. If this is where you expect us to xp to 99 I think it will be hard to compete with Abyssea.

What I'm hoping is that Abyssea is dressing us for Endgame. A bit like when you hit your 60's and get your artifact armour. Ideally Abyssea gears us for some extreme challenge in the form of the new void areas.

Abyssea really should have been inaccessible to anyone sub 50 at least. So that the levelling scene in the low to mid levels wasn't killed off and people could xp their subjobs without leeching. It's great that the xp grind has been addressed but I think there were better ways to do it for the low to mid levels.

You might laugh at this... but there's nothing truly terrifying in the game right now. I mean something which presents a serious threat to life and limb and which a strong group couldn't take out. Whilst I do believe that pop NMs are the way forward it would be nice to have a few absolutely monstrous HNM randomly causing chaos. A bit like the way Guivre used to to level 53 parties in Kuftal tunnel but something terrifying and up at the 110+ level.

I've always dreamed of an HNM crab in the dunes... scaring the crap out of people and shaking the ground. What I'd like to see in an ideal world an HNM which people could team up on in the same way as you do for Campaign or Besieged but I know that might be impossible. Randomly popping in almost any zone and with some form of shared reward or points which you can trade in for items.

Abyssean gear has effectively nullified 80% of the other gear in the game. Whilst we need the improvements going forward, this means its nullified interest in other events. Only the promise of upgrades has taken my group back to Salvage, even though we enjoy the event. Whether we like it or not, players are greedy for equipment and almost everything from Limbus/Nyzul Isle/Dynamis/Assault/Salvage/Campaign/Einherjar/Kings is worthless now. I really, really hope that the upgrading system brings back interest in these events.


Sorry for the wall-o-text but essentially I like the move away from Kings/gil but am worried about the future. And please give me a giant crab of doom!