Ok...let me level with you here SE...

[Alhanelem]

Also, there is quite a difference in between item collection and kills. For item trials, in an 18 person fight, one person will receive an item. Whereas for a trial requirement involving a specific number of kills, in an 18 person fight, all 18 people would receive the kill credit.

This is the whole thing though- you're not likely to fill an entire alliance with people doing the same trial (or a trial requiring the same item).

The development team needs to strongly consider reassessing how much time they want players to spend on this. Most of the game's veterans, who have bene playing a long time, are older now and cannot devote the same amount of time to the game as they did when they first started. The game needs to move away from horrible grinds, and towards content with a little more depth.

[Soidisant]

I'm honestly at a loss for words with just out of touch the developers are with the player base. I mean we knew it was bad but the devs seriously think that?

They think it should require 18 people to kill a mob multiple times to finish 1 persons 99 Relic? And then have that mob be restricted by a once per RL day limit. Plus all the pre-pop NM's and the main NM are going to be a huge bottleneck because there's only 1 ??? for all the NM's pops and hundreds of Relics per server.

Unless Umbral Marrow is made available from other sources then it is a completely unreasonable trial. Congestion, in-game restrictions and mob difficulty just make it a ludicrous trial even if the required number of items was vastly reduced. I would rather do the Empyrean or Mythic trial instead. Hell, I would rather do both of them instead.

Bottom line is that this trial is hugely demoralising to 99.9% of relic holders out there. I know I just won't bother with it if I'm still playing at that point. And I can say with 100% certainty that applies to all 15 Relics in my LS.

[Insaniac]

"The imaginary balance god will smite us if we accidentally make the trial easier in the process of making it unstupid."

I don't think a kill trial was the answer either but telling us they would basically have to multiply the number required by 18 for the sake of balance is such a load of bullshit. They seem to be completely ignoring the time restriction, the difficulty of the mob, the trade off people make for helping with a run, and the massive gap between number of relics in circulation and the number of mythics/95 emps.

From an outside perspective it seems like the only thing they are thinking when designing this garbage is "HERP 10 < 20 < 60!! EMPS R TEH HARDEST!! MYTHICS R TEH EASIEST!!"

[Nynja]

I don't think a kill trial was the answer either but telling us they would basically have to multiply the number required by 18 for the sake of balance is such a load of bullshit.

You mean BSTx18 all upgrading Guttlers can kill ADL? Oh wait, you mean you need healers and Perfect Defense and actual DD's?

[SpankWustler]

"The imaginary balance god will smite us if we accidentally make the trial easier in the process of making it unstupid."

He smites everyone all the time forever, in order to keep it balanced. For every really inspired spell or ability added, there's another that isn't even worth the 2+ seconds of melee-time you lose for it. For every tree that grows in Brooklyn, a tree falls and crushes someone to death in Arkansas. For every awesome weapon added, one more person undertakes the Magian Trial for a horrible thing that Occasionally Attacks 2-4 Times with horrible distribution and horrible delay. For every rare animal that is shown compassion and saved, one gorilla is captured and shaved and put to work in a brothel.

I don't think a kill trial was the answer either but telling us they would basically have to multiply the number required by 18 for the sake of balance is such a load of bullshit. They seem to be completely ignoring the time restriction, the difficulty of the mob, the trade off people make for helping with a run, and the massive gap between number of relics in circulation and the number of mythics/95 emps.

This. This to infinity.

They didn't take the incentives for killing the monster into account, either. Archie the Dynamis Lord drops stuff that was never that good and he drops that stuff at a disappointing rate, Pandemonium Warden drops stuff that while awesome at 75 is more pointless than performing breast augmentation on a young boy's corpse, and the Voidwatch things drop...Oh, hey, stuff that actually makes people want to fight them; trial or no trial.

[Washburn]

He smites everyone all the time forever, in order to keep it balanced. For every really inspired spell or ability added, there's another that isn't even worth the 2+ seconds of melee-time you lose for it. For every tree that grows in Brooklyn, a tree falls and crushes someone to death in Arkansas. For every awesome weapon added, one more person undertakes the Magian Trial for a horrible thing that Occasionally Attacks 2-4 Times with horrible distribution and horrible delay. For every rare animal that is shown compassion and saved, one gorilla is captured and shaved and put to work in a brothel.



This. This to infinity.

They didn't take the incentives for killing the monster into account, either. Archie the Dynamis Lord drops stuff that was never that good and he drops that stuff at a disappointing rate, Pandemonium Warden drops stuff that while awesome at 75 is more pointless than performing breast augmentation on a young boy's corpse, and the Voidwatch things drop...Oh, hey, stuff that actually makes people want to fight them; trial or no trial.

you're picture is about as creepy as the cover of "The Shining". Take it as a compliment. I'm proud of you.

[Gaspee]

An unfortunate decision by the development team.

All I can say is that the fan-base, unequivocally, disagrees with how these trials are primed to progress. From what I can see, this is the majority opinion across all NA fan forums.

[Washburn]

so, if people start farming an item before the trial is even made, we're going to be lazy, sorry fucks and ask the world of a diminishing population to follow through with the rediculousness! yes! Ghadafi died and went to hell (SE's main office)

[Zubis]

Thanks for trying Camate, it is appreciated. However...

Also, there is quite a difference in between item collection and kills. For item trials, in an 18 person fight, one person will receive an item. Whereas for a trial requirement involving a specific number of kills, in an 18 person fight, all 18 people would receive the kill credit. While it’s not really as simple as multiplying it 18 times, since the basic thinking would be that the kill count should be greater than the number of items, in the event that we were to change the trial requirements from item collection to kills, there is a high possibility that the number would rise significantly.

This is probably the most disheartening thing I have read about FFXI in the last number of years.
The idea that in 2012 a MMO will design events that will literally take a year non-stop to accomplish is absolutely unbelievable.

18 players x 20 items each is 360 fights (with a daily restriction of one). A year. Just...no.

[FrankReynolds]

I vote for a new development team strategy. I say that the devs must play the game, and they cannot implement content that they have not completed themselves.

IE: the devs should go home after work every night, and do this stupid friggin trial 2 hours a day for the next year (no pay for this, it's a game remember) and then come back and tell us how fun it was before they put this crap into the game.

The responses from these guys completely defy logic.