Suggestion: Break the game, SE

[Aquilla]

You know, I'm glad people are coming here to share their frustrations with SE's handling of this game. I agree with the above poster's comments about Aby -- it really was what broke FFXI, and made it fun.

They need to keep doing it.

One of the most recent systems introduced was Neo-Nyzul. It is, basically, everything wrong with FFXI in a nutshell -- random, lack of progression, lack of rewards. Granted, SE has made changes to it, and many people are rightfully happy with the proposed changes of allowing people to aim for a floor, and allowing people to claim rewards without depending solely on luck.

Good for you, SE, it's a step in the right direction. It's not enough.

This is what the system should've looked like when it first came to the game proper. This is the kind of a change you should've done after feedback on the test server. This was never a good idea. It was blatantly grindy, the worst kind of grindy, and it was abandoned by the playerbase soon after introduction.

FFXI is a monument to abandoned content.

Yeah, I'm glad that you made Neo-nyzul less retarded, SE. However, I'm not going to be singing your praises just yet. Less retarded doesn't mean 'good' or 'awesome'.

Have a in-game way for people to flag up for this kind of content without sitting in whitegate and praying for the right kind of a shout. Have the NMs in it, those that randomly show up, drop their actual drops with a very high percentage. Have all r/e drops be 100%. Give aby-style random buffs -- maybe a large glowing orb of awesome that can randomly spawn, you run through it and it gives you increased attack/hp/haste? Idk. Have bosses give titles. Have the trophy system give other rewards, too -- special crafting mats, perhaps. Multicolored chickens. Custom pom-poms for my moogle. Random fireworks. *

Am I happy about the proposed changes to neo-nyzul? Yes. I'm glad you listened. But it's a bit frustrating because we, as the playerbase, have been telling you this stuff over and over and over again for a decade. What you did was okay, you get a B for effort, but hardly Triple-A stuff that you should be turning out, SE.

Then go and fix the rest of your abandoned content.

* The author of this post is not a game designer, and doesn't know jack about game designing. All ideas are purely speculative, pulled from the nether regions of Boredom incarnate, and should not be taken as serious, but merely as representations of what ideas look like.

[Shipp]

didn't say I had a problem with the "dice" (not going to use RNG since that's also the abreviation for ranger), just pointing out that the only real risk left is plain old dumb luck.

RNG stands for Random Number Generator, which is more accurate than "dice" in this case.

Please tell me what "real risk" there was in the past. EXP loss? Yep, that's about it, or losing a BCNM and your seals going to waste.

There was never any risk in FFXI, aside from the risk you would have to spend hours to gain back that XP that you just lost from one mob. That's not risk, that's artificial padding.

It's an MMO, not a banana. They don't go stale after a few days and the slowly rot off for no reason at all. If there was a will to change, there could be a change and new players and epic lewtz to be had by all.

Sorry, but are you just trying to troll now?

The game is nearly a decade old, and yes, MMOs do wind down. No amount of polishing and tweaking is going to make XI ever have 1m+ subs again. It's the way MMOs work, I'm sorry you don't understand.

Riddle me this, batman: which part of their outdated code was responsible for the fun I and a lot of players had in Aby, and why has it vanished off the matrix? Which bit of code is responsible for the inability to have your own personal chicken in northlands or WoTG?

How about you quit being a smartass and use your brain. Our point is that no amount of polishing and tweaking the game is going to make it appeal to a massive amount of people who have not already played it. Yes, more aby-like things being added would probably bring back old school people, but then again, aby also was the reason why a lot of people quit, so it would be a fool's errand trying to argue that it would be the thing that revives XI. XI is past that point at this stage. It's surviving, quite well, and will remain to do so until enough people leave that everyone is on one server.

[Aquilla]

So your point is that the game is just fine the way it is? Duly noted! However, since a. SE's still running the game, b. SE is still making games, and c. SE's invited us to give our opinions to them, I'll have to disagree.

If you think the game is just fine, and everything's good, that's fine and good too. Just for the heck of it, if SE did decide to break the game and add a whole bunch of new stuff, would you get up and quit in a huff..? Rhetorical question -- it really doesn't matter.

SE needs to break the game, and stop pussyfooting around. All's not well in Vana'diel, and burying your head in the sand has never served anyone.

[Rewyen]

We all know it won't happen. Even with dwindling numbers, this game is still a cash cow. And sadly, we all complain and keep on playing in the mad hope that something new will come along, but it won't. I mean, sure, we could all get the epic expansion we've all been dreaming about, complete with two shiny new jobs and a dozen new areas. But, like every other time, people will rush through it at mach bajillion and complain that it was too short/not enough content/boring. And a month later, we're all right back here. But should they break the game? No.

What they should do is release one last epic expansion that unlocks every single area ever mentioned but never seen (Tavnazia, Mithra Homeland, Far East), fill in the rest of Aht Urhgan, connect all the loose ends, fix all the battlefields and give every job the abilities based on player feedback. Then one year later, condense the servers, do one last major update and run it as a F2P. This way, the game lives on and SE can suck every last dime out of people before it becomes a relic. This game is old and tired and has plenty of competition worth the money and time to draw players away from here. So fix FFXIV so you still have something broken to charge people for and let this bird fly free.

[Shipp]

So your point is that the game is just fine the way it is? Duly noted! However, since a. SE's still running the game, b. SE is still making games, and c. SE's invited us to give our opinions to them, I'll have to disagree.

If you think the game is just fine, and everything's good, that's fine and good too. Just for the heck of it, if SE did decide to break the game and add a whole bunch of new stuff, would you get up and quit in a huff..? Rhetorical question -- it really doesn't matter.

SE needs to break the game, and stop pussyfooting around. All's not well in Vana'diel, and burying your head in the sand has never served anyone.

As I said, people need to stop trying to be smart asses by making rant posts based on an inaccurate assumption. Stop being a smart ass, read my posts, try to comprehend them, and maybe you won't end up completely missing the point in your haste to make a "comeback" post.

[Glamdring]

That might have been for T6 VW fights, which admittedly are not forgiving fights and take a certain job setup.

I take a slight issue with this. Yes, they aren't forgiving fights, you're right there. But Requiring certain jobs? doubtful. The correct statement would be that job set x has been shown to win fairly consistently if everyone plays it right. Job set y, z, and a-n might very well be able to win it as well, it's just that noone has posted it yet. Regardless, it would require a party that was clicking on all points no matter what jobs were in the set. non-standard parties have a long history of being successful when played right, just look at all the "burn" designs as an example. Not that VW is very burn friendly, at least if you want anything from it, but the point is EMBRACE THE WIERD!!! it actually works more often than you might think.

[FrankReynolds]

As I said, people need to stop trying to be smart asses by making rant posts based on an inaccurate assumption. Stop being a smart ass, read my posts, try to comprehend them, and maybe you won't end up completely missing the point in your haste to make a "comeback" post.

The guy is trying really hard to be nice to you despite the fact that your just ragging on him and adding nothing to the conversation. It makes you look pretty silly. A lot of people think the game is going in a bad direction as of late. The beauty of a MMO is that it can be reinvented and expanded on without any limit other than profitability. That means that the game can be reinvented again and again for 50 years, or neglected and shutdown in 6 months.

I for one would like to see a radical shift and a reinvention. There are still thousands of walls that can be broken down in this game. The old FFXI was fun and while there was a lot of bad stuff, it was overall a great game. I don't want to go back to it anymore than I want to go back to the 8th grade though. Crazy long grinds for stuff that added virtually invisible gains to your character are a thing of the past and should stay that way.

EDIT: Funny side note... he clearly knew what RNG stands for. Good job explaining it to him for no reason though.

[Zinato]

The correct statement would be that job set x has been shown to win fairly consistently if everyone plays it right. Job set y, z, and a-n might very well be able to win it as well, it's just that noone has posted it yet. Regardless, it would require a party that was clicking on all points no matter what jobs were in the set. non-standard parties have a long history of being successful when played right, just look at all the "burn" designs as an example. Not that VW is very burn friendly, at least if you want anything from it, but the point is EMBRACE THE WIERD!!! it actually works more often than you might think.

This is why i'm glad they have scraped procs from this moment on. (or so they say) Abyssea could have been so different were it not for 6 jobs being locked into use, VW is following the same crippling design, and 2/3 the forum could tell you about bst/dynamis let alone dnc, thf, blu and so on. As much as players like x,y,z set-up and tend to stick to them, in this case the DEVs stepped in and said here is your set-up if you want treasure. Nothing would make me happier then removal of the specific proc in abyssea or vw and replace them with hints/procs based on what jobs are in your party. Unfortunatly, this has been said many times before and has yet to be addressed, and that assumes that something can even be done this far along. At least dynamis is based on a type of move rather then specifics but, in it's case that could very well have been worse.

*Disclaimer* there are plenty of threads to discuss dynamis procs I'm stating a fact not starting a debate.

What would be nice (and on topic) would be if they made scripted fights such as on an airship or boat that require say a certain amount of range dmg to force the enemy closer to be melee'd. Or enemies that react to abilities/spells, so for example if you cast while its casting it will follow with poisonga (like amphitrite) or if you use a 2hr so will it. ZERG ALL TEH THINGS! gets old after you do it to anything that moves and puts up a fight.

[Anapingofness]

The guy is trying really hard to be nice to you despite the fact that your just ragging on him and adding nothing to the conversation. It makes you look pretty silly. A lot of people think the game is going in a bad direction as of late. The beauty of a MMO is that it can be reinvented and expanded on without any limit other than profitability. That means that the game can be reinvented again and again for 50 years, or neglected and shutdown in 6 months.

I for one would like to see a radical shift and a reinvention. There are still thousands of walls that can be broken down in this game. The old FFXI was fun and while there was a lot of bad stuff, it was overall a great game. I don't want to go back to it anymore than I want to go back to the 8th grade though. Crazy long grinds for stuff that added virtually invisible gains to your character are a thing of the past and should stay that way.

EDIT: Funny side note... he clearly knew what RNG stands for. Good job explaining it to him for no reason though.

That was pretty cool of you FrankReynolds. For that, I give you my thanks and a cookie. Tbh, I was just thinking the same thing. So thank you for putting it so eloquently! ^^

[Fupafighter]

SE needs to make heavy metal be able to AH. I can never seem the find the people selling at a normal price... Keep getting all the retards that think 120k for a common VW drop is fair.