Ballista Reborn!

[Shinron-PUP]

As a long time player who has grown to appreciate all aspects of Final Fantasy, Ballista is one thing in which is neglected and something I wish to see restored back to its former glory. Ballista sees its "Lack of... or "Influx" of players each time a match cancels, as the Herald would say, because of its depreciating attention and outdated content in which makes the game unbalanced and repeticious. This can partially be blamed on the new directors of FFXI after the main developers/directors Nobuaki Komoto (from 2003 until 2008) and Koichi Ogawa (from 2008 until 2010) stepped down before the game was turned in a whole other direction by the reforming "Abyssea", but even with this said, that doesn't mean that this event should become the forgotten step child of Square Enix... With Ballista, it could become a new asset in which can catch new eyes and add to the player base.

My hopes for this thread is that Ballista players, whether from the elite Ballista Royales or those who just enjoyed it from time to time as something to do while they were bored, would join together in attempts to rebirth this forgotten event through comments, views, and any suggestions on how to make it better so that we can shine attention and maybe get Camate to go beat on Square Enix until they implement new things in order to attract people to Ballista once again! __________________________________________________________________________

Ballista Ideas

I've had a couple of ideas in which I'd like to put out there to maybe help Square Enix in making Ballista a more socially acceptable event.

* Raising Gil Rewards to the winning teams in Ballista.

* Implementing new items rewards (That are actually unique and wanted) or possibly +2 material into ballista that are purchasable with Ballista points; allowing for an alternative method and enjoyable one to finishing Abyssea armor. Even creating a new class of "Ballista Armor" would be a welcomed idea.

* Creating new zones or battle fields in which players can Brawl or spectate easily without measily time restrictions or costly prices to enter.

* Giving experience points upon successfully killing another player while in Ballista (This can be balanced by creating an cap amount of experience points one can obtain in order to keep players from intentionally using this as a pure source of gaining fast Exp.)

* Creating live ballista zones which a player can enter and automatically become fightable... This could possibly be stationed is Purogogo Isle or other old and unused zones?

* Creating Statuses, much like level sync, in which when turned on, allows players to fight each other anywhere (without experience points loss). While under the affect, in order to create balance, players cannot attack monsters, but also have an auto reraise affect. This or possibly an idea where a person can choose an option to "Dual" another person and s/he has the option to accept or decline.

* Allowing players to make self set up matches which lets players call a herald to hold a match in any zone (Maybe only conquest zones) and make all monsters unattackable and invisble as they would be in an official match. This would allow for ease during fights and for this option to only be used for pvp purposes. One of the morely exciting things about this idea is that players could hold matches in areas such as Port Jueno or Aht Uraghan Whitegate as a exciting event for all players to watch or partake in... but I mostly would like this to be a feasable option in outside of town zones so that players can fight in new locations furthermore making ballista enjoyable...

How I see this working is this would be in the form of a purchasable item, Maybe a "Herald's Whistle" (Neck armor), in which summons a Herald that allows you to place 1-2 rooks on a map in the locations you choose and spawning points after dying, just as an Official match would work. This item could be purchasable after collecting maybe 10,000 Ballista points which would allow for it to be only used by a select amount of players and not just anyone.) Also one of the beneficial parts of ballista is that it makes all players outside of it invisible and all monster unattackable/invisble... making it less likely for lag in highly populated areas/zones. Of course, I would not want this to be usable in areas such as abyssea, events such as dynamis/einherjar/salvage, or anything else like this... but areas such as Bhaflau Thickets, Ru'Aun Gardens, and any other nice places would be nice scenary to add to a bloody battle!

* Lastly... I would like to see new music added to the fights... quite possibly creating a selection for the winning or losing songs that can be set would furthermore create a more enjoyable atmosphere to Ballista... Jamming to the Alexander fight Music in ToAU 44 when winning or anything else from the final fights in some of the expantions would just get the blood pumping to pummels somebodies face!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1danrqg06wQ --- Link to Alexander fight song (Check it out)


Ballista, I believe, is a enjoyable game in which allows players to test out their new armor and abilities in a more live and presuresome setting... "If you're good at ballista, you're probably a good player in general." I always say to my fellow Ballista mates because it tests your ability to create new, unique, and original ideas in order to survive, aid, and bring down your oponent on the battle field... and with this type of mentality applied to an ingame situation... failure is impossible.

If anyone has further comments, ideas, questions, or anything... Don't be scared to post! More views/comments/posts = Higher chance of Camate fowarding this to Square Enix mwahaha!

Edit: Also see "Reviving PvP & Ballista" Post for more creative ideas.

[Korpg]

People still do Ballista?

Also, 2000th post.

[Elexia]

People still do Ballista?

Also, 2000th post.

Some do yeah, just for fun and to pass time. I was reading this till I seen 'items and rewards' then had to stop. I rather not be forced into PvP for rewards nor would I want to be nicely rewarded for something that isn't a focus of this game, especially if it's job changing because you then have to do it if you want to get all you can to make your job go further.

[Nezha]

Some do yeah, just for fun and to pass time. I was reading this till I seen 'items and rewards' then had to stop. I rather not be forced into PvP for rewards nor would I want to be nicely rewarded for something that isn't a focus of this game, especially if it's job changing because you then have to do it if you want to get all you can to make your job go further.

I really doubt that any gear coming out of ballista would be job changing, and I agree; I wouldn't want that to be the case. I would imagine that Ballista gear would be strictly given ballista stats that benefit them when they're only in Ballista... Somewhat how there is armor in which only takes effect inside Salvage or Assault and are good in them, but not necessary outside of the event. This type of armor could also balance the game by giving mage jobs a armor piece that gives physical damage -50% inside Ballista or give Melee jobs a -50% magic damage taken piece or Resist Sleep pieces that makes it so that 1 shot/cherry picking jobs like Corsair (Wildfire spam), Black Mages (Aeroja/Waterja/Sleepga spam when no one is looking), or Warrior/SAM who run in and Ukko you for 2000++ are balanced.

[Spinecord]

i often remembered when i was on alexander i saw a whole group of jp players just stomping behind in ballista, i wanted to try it but i was sort of intimidated because i was afraid that i would lose exp, so i was just content to watch the matches, but really, for those who like pvp, do it.. for us pve'rs just level and pray for the coveted level 120 cap lol.

[Shinron-PUP]

Just depends on the server you're on... Fenrir is popular for ballista although it's falling off because of the unbalanced gap between jobs lol. Corsair can pretty much take out anyone with WildFire in 1 shot which is some of the things I'd like to see fixed because if some jobs are overpowered in the match, then it takes away the aspect of the "need for skill to take down another player". Maybe this can be fixed by creating caps on certain types of damage that are preportional to increase in level and HP.

[Kimara]

I was never big on Ballista but my linkshell has been doing brenner lately and I gotta say it's a lot of fun <3 We always have a blast.

[Leonlionheart]

I'd like PvP to be fiddled with some more, but despite there being 3894839 threads about this no one from SE has given us any feedback.

I really doubt they'll do anything about it.

[Nezha]

I've actually seen no threads covering ballista; this is the first post I've seen. Despite this fact, I think this is all completely reasonable ideas... Ballista deserves to have some time spent on it, and it's not like anything bad can come out of it... It'll add to the vast collections of things we can do when we get tired of Abyssea 24/7.

Also I really like the Herald's Whistle idea... being able to set up a match anywhere is kind of powerful, but regardless would be fun for people who can't ballista because no one shows up to official matches.

[Leonlionheart]

I've actually seen no threads covering ballista; this is the first post I've seen.

Search function is hard.