Sept update blues

[Greatguardian]

Greatguardian just thinks 27 stop-and-drop NMs amounts to a truck load of content when the majority of the NMs are just overall minor tweaks of existing NMs to be a hell lot more annoying for a group. Out of all 27, the only 'new' NM in the group is the mantis, which is tier-3 Jeuno.

What else did we get besides 4 more WoE arenas and more revamped zones for GoV goodness anyways?

HKCNMs? Along with the 27 new fights, Atmacites, Periapts, new WoE drops, Trials for existing weapons, new Food and Crafting recipes, complete overhaul of the WoE system, revamp of CoP Dynamis areas, addition of multiple new GoV zones and loot. What the heck more were you expecting? A full expansion? Can you point to a single non-expansion/addon patch that added more content at once?

[Kaisha]

A lot of the main NMs in Abyssea were at least given additional move sets. I never claimed Abyssea was a lot of content also. At least even it had more things to waste time with though other than spamming NMs.

[Mahoro]

A lot of the main NMs in Abyssea were at least given additional move sets. I never claimed Abyssea was a lot of content also. At least even it had more things to waste time with though other than spamming NMs.

The majority of NM's in VW are given additional move sets as well, and Zilart mobs pop with adds which makes things more interesting. It's an academic point though. My intent was to put things into perspective when comparing Abyssea to VW. You can do some quests in Abyssea zones, sure, but in the end you are really just spamming NM's. I kind of miss the days of Assault, when we had more original objectives than just "pop and kill this NM."

[Kaisha]

Can you point to a single non-expansion/addon patch that added more content at once?

That I cannot. But that's only because we didn't have to wait four full months for a proper content update. Used to get content bimonthly which included continuation of set pieces and new locations to visit in a storyline in addition to the usual orb battles, NMs, quests, etc.

For the amount of time we had to wait, this amount of content is disappointing. The devs banked everything on VW and revamped CoP Dynamis this update, and the Dynamis part isn;t even completed yet.

The majority of NM's in VW are given additional move sets as well, and Zilart mobs pop with adds which makes things more interesting. It's an academic point though. My intent was to put things into perspective when comparing Abyssea to VW. You can do some quests in Abyssea zones, sure, but in the end you are really just spamming NM's. I kind of miss the days of Assault, when we had more original objectives than just "pop and kill this NM."

Point taken. I've not done Zilart progress so I shouldn't really comment too much on that. I've been focusing on the Jeuno path primarily which has yet to surprise me at all, midway through T2 on it.

[Greatguardian]

Is it that surprising that they emphasized Endgame content with this update? Endgame players are the ones who have finished Abyssea. They're the ones who need something to do. Most casual players don't even have a full set of AF3+2, let alone even a single Empyrean. There is still plenty of content for them to do. And even then, WoE, Dynamis, and HKCNM are all Casual-friendly events.

[Taint2]

Is it that surprising that they emphasized Endgame content with this update? Endgame players are the ones who have finished Abyssea. They're the ones who need something to do. Most casual players don't even have a full set of AF3+2, let alone even a single Empyrean. There is still plenty of content for them to do. And even then, WoE, Dynamis, and HKCNM are all Casual-friendly events.

Pretty much this.

[Septimus]

I think that the truly disappointing part of this update is the lack of story. The CoP days may have been the dark ages when it came to convenience, playability, and not being hated by the development team, but the story involved with the game was incredibly rich. Updates could have up to a dozen quests added, many with more story involved than just "fetch me these items" for our standard monthly fee. To get a dozen of anything now you have to pay $10, and chances are the stories will be sloppily thrown together like those first three terrible add-ons. (Seriously, I will never forgive whoever did the "no one remembers anything because they were dreaming" garbage from a Crystaline Prophecy. Any Freshman literature undergrad could have scribbled out a better story than that.)

Take Open Sesame for example. This was a standard fetch quest where you just give the NPC some stuff and that is it. Instead, it could have been about an archeologist who wanted to study the Quicksand Caves ruins. Throw in a brief tour of the place through ??? spots, discuss the history of the place, maybe tell us some things that we never knew about it, the archeologist figures out how to make a gizmo to work the doors and gives us one because we were so helpful to him; everyone would feel a little more enriched for the experience. Instead we got a very lazy "get me this and something else" and called it a day.

Sure, some people don't care about the game's backstory, but a lot of us do. The game's lore keeps us connected to Vana'diel, it helps us to care about the game- anymore I am finding this part to be disturbingly wanting.

[Aver]

I think that the truly disappointing part of this update is the lack of story. The CoP days may have been the dark ages when it came to convenience, playability, and not being hated by the development team, but the story involved with the game was incredibly rich. Updates could have up to a dozen quests added, many with more story involved than just "fetch me these items" for our standard monthly fee. To get a dozen of anything now you have to pay $10, and chances are the stories will be sloppily thrown together like those first three terrible add-ons. (Seriously, I will never forgive whoever did the "no one remembers anything because they were dreaming" garbage from a Crystaline Prophecy. Any Freshman literature undergrad could have scribbled out a better story than that.)

Take Open Sesame for example. This was a standard fetch quest where you just give the NPC some stuff and that is it. Instead, it could have been about an archeologist who wanted to study the Quicksand Caves ruins. Throw in a brief tour of the place through ??? spots, discuss the history of the place, maybe tell us some things that we never knew about it, the archeologist figures out how to make a gizmo to work the doors and gives us one because we were so helpful to him; everyone would feel a little more enriched for the experience. Instead we got a very lazy "get me this and something else" and called it a day.

Sure, some people don't care about the game's backstory, but a lot of us do. The game's lore keeps us connected to Vana'diel, it helps us to care about the game- anymore I am finding this part to be disturbingly wanting.

Pretty much hit the nail on the head. I'm running out of (in-depth) story to go through, and it's making me sad. Gear, gear, gear, gear, spells, gear, gear can only go so far.

The plot-holes thread on BG is probably the best thread about XI I've read in a long time, and I'm glad it's being kept maintained.

[Helel]

You can't really blame them... it takes a lot of time to develop add-ons like abyssea. I know they recycled the maps and such, but it's still a lot of work with npc/mob placement, quests, proc system, on and on. I assume they'll add some more mini-expansions for the 99 cap, but we'll see.

I enjoy VW quite a bit now, but it's still not the same as abyssea. It would be nice to see them incorporate new battlefields, instead of recycling old NMs.

[Return1]

People will whine about anything.

This update was awesome. It brought back WoE from the brink of death, it added BCNMs with rewards that are actually worth doing them for, expanded VW which is awesome even if the drops are rare, added new EXP camps/mobs, and they streamlined existing EXP even further with repeating pages.

On top of this, we got awesome new spells, some of you got awesome JAs, and lots of gear upgrades.

You want some examples of awesome gear upgrades? Is 10 right off the top of my head good enough?

Hagneia stone
Tyrant's Ring
Prolix Ring
Fajin Boots
Earthcry Earring
Nefer Kalasiris
Oretenia's Cape
Glassblower's Belt
Mekira
Phasmida Belt

All are pretty legit upgrades for their purposes.