Geode's Drop Rate......

[RAIST]

So many things would be made better just by a simple fix to the fire weather frequency. Make the Kuzotz region weather have fire frequency to match the frequency of ice weather in Valdeaunia.

Kuzots actually follows a real life desert pattern: wide range of temperatures that can run from as low as near freezing at night in the cooler months to peak temps over 100F during the day in the hotter months, an extremely dry climate that is often windy and is thus prone to frequent dust storms. In this particular model, the peak high temperatures run on a cycle that start ramping up in the Spring and slope off in the Fall, with the hottest part of the cycle running from the end of Spring through to early Fall (Basically, Summer season). This is not to say that you can't have the odd hot days in January or February, they just don't commonly occur with a high frequency like in the Summer months (maybe once a week or so versus every other day or back to back days--not uncommon to catch some cycles in Jan, Feb, March, November...just usually only one cycle in a real-life day here and there, not every day and sometimes multiple cycles in a night's session during the Summer cycle).

And yes, this is an actual pattern for many desert regions. Don't believe me? Google desert climate statistics. You can easily see this trend here in the states (AZ, NV, etc.), but in other desert regions around the globe as well. And, by the way, temperature is not the primary determining factor for designating a desert region---it's more about the water cycle, as in how dry it is. You can have desert regions with icy areas.

This is the pattern I've followed in game for fire weather cycles--start tracking it more aggressively from June through October--I in fact saw a forecast for back to back cycles this morning at 4am in QSC, October 19th/20th. I caught it in roughly the same slot in the last game year on 10/18 on Feb. 29th real life time (in other words, there is a pattern to it...and it's been fairly consistent so far). The past four days, I've farmed roughly 30 flame geodes in weather by checking on just 3 of the zones where fire routinely pops--didn't feel like continually changing jobs to bounce around on WHM to check all the regions. This was roughly the peak window for fire weather for this game year--give it about 10 days and we'll be back in the cycle again. Rinse and repeat. It is cyclical, and thus can be tracked and planned for if you are willing to put the effort into it. Even though the data set is not complete (not all zones show up, and it periodically blanks out for some regions, even all regions for nearly a full RL day at times), the weather reporting at ff11info.com can be a big help in catching these cycles....if you care to farm them yourself.

As for the issue with the pricing on the AH....you may not necessarily have to pay the 80k prices. These prices have only recently ramped up like this on our server. The odd thing is, the price has gone up while the supply has INCREASED (Garudite is real bad about this...seen it jump from 40k to 70k each while the stock ramped up from ~50 to over 100). Obviously people are getting a lot of them....some players periodically buy nearly 2 dozen flame in one day at peak pricing (75-80k, presumably crafters as they get stacks of wind crystals too--last one I noted doing this was Devilsaint the other day). This will quickly drain the stock down into the teens, and a short while later the stock is right back up to 50+. I have seen our supply break 80--it will hover above 50 for days, dip down under 20, then go right back up to 50 within a couple hours. You can sometimes see the same player selling chunks of Ifritite/flame repeatedly--sometimes a run of 12+ in each pass. This happens often, regardless of the history routinely showing people nabbing the flames below the 50k mark--not uncommon for me to see some slip by for 10k here and there. And yet, people keep paying the jacked up prices, regardless of the price history. This happens routinely on roughly a 2 week cycle...roughly one year in game time. Things that make you go "hmmm....."

It may simply be more an issue with impatience driving the price up then a supply/demand issue. Perhaps if SE could just remove the cool-down restriction on the drops some of this market anxiety would go away because more people might be inclined to farm them instead of a smaller group doing so and raking in the rewards of their efforts on the AH--which could eventually drive the price back down again.

[Trumpy]

it feels to me that geodes were droppin much better originally. then after some update it felt like i was gettin far fewer than before. and now there are the avatites. my question is are geodes and avatites on the same drop timer? cause that would be horrible. ive been growing tired of how slow i been collectin breeze geodes so i was goin to go farm some but i couldnt find wind weather that day. i was gonna try to be mindful and figure if they dropped on same timer and all that.

[Zinato]

it feels to me that geodes were droppin much better originally. then after some update it felt like i was gettin far fewer than before. and now there are the avatites. my question is are geodes and avatites on the same drop timer? cause that would be horrible.

Common theory is they do, in fact, drop on the same timer. From what little testing I've done that seems to be the case. (Provided after 2 hours of seeing mostly rites I left the area for a lower level one.) Another theory states if a rite can drop it will drop first, In other words once one drops you have 5 minutes to find a geode or the rite will overwrite it. This can be bothersome on the bigger monsters outside abyssea (It's usually a bad idea to farm in there anyway) It can take much longer to kill high level monsters for that drop. Bottomline is in either case go to low level areas unless you are intentionally farming both.

The rate geodes drop haven't been an issue for me, its the stupid timer which eats up all my time. Provided I'm sure in the name of the great balance god, should the timer be removed the drop rate even in weather will have to be cut to 1/5. One final note, rites have 0 crafting value so for the most part they are nice and cheap (breeze excluded), I think the reason geodes haven't followed suit is Pyrosoul type rings have gone up in price, and these new trials take roughly 3x the previous amount meaning the trial weapon creators have likely not finished yet.

[Lokithor]

Kuzots actually follows a real life desert pattern:

I'm not disputing the fact the desert climates actually refer to precipitation or that deserts can be cold. Last I checked, FFXI was not set on earth. I mentioned Kuzotz because it was one of the only places in the game that gets fire weather at all. I wouldn't mind a bit less "realism" and a bit better game BALANCE.

[RAIST]

I'm not disputing the fact the desert climates actually refer to precipitation or that deserts can be cold. Last I checked, FFXI was not set on earth. I mentioned Kuzotz because it was one of the only places in the game that gets fire weather at all. I wouldn't mind a bit less "realism" and a bit better game BALANCE.

One of the only places? There's 9 regions that get fire weather. They provide 22 zones that get fire weather, 2/3 have mobs high enough to drop flame geodes:

Zulkhelm (2, 1 too low)
Kuzots (3, 1 too low)
Volbow (4)
Aragoneu(1, but too low)
Derfland (2, 1 too low)
Elshimo (5, 2 too low)
Halvung (2)

Aragoneu Front (1)
Derfland Front (2)

22 zones, 16 zones across 8 regions that have mobs high enough to get geodes off of.

[Lokithor]

One of the only places? There's 9 regions that get fire weather.

I love someone whose arguments, although accurate, have no relevance.

Here is a great web site that tracks weather.

This tracks 40 areas over 3 game days. Most of the time, there is zero fire weather in the forecast. When I checked just now, there was 1 out of 120 with fire in the forecast. It's impossible to argue that this is balanced.

Hear is some grammer and spelling errors that you can now base your next irrelevant post on.

[RAIST]

I love someone whose arguments, although accurate, have no relevance.

Here is a great web site that tracks weather.

This tracks 40 areas over 3 game days. Most of the time, there is zero fire weather in the forecast. When I checked just now, there was 1 out of 120 with fire in the forecast. It's impossible to argue that this is balanced.

Hear is some grammer and spelling errors that you can now base your next irrelevant post on.

As I pointed out when I referenced that site.. it is an incomplete data set. It is based on what forecasts a group of people collecting in a limited set of time. For the most part, there is enough data there for you to get a general feel for most of the patterns. There are clearly holes in the forecast collection--zones routinely drop off, and I've seen it post nothing for over 24hours as well. The charts aren't as reliable as the forecast app either. Look at them and you will see some obvious discrepencies. Things like one chart only shows two occurrences of light and I have seen it forecast 5 times where the chart says null. The tracking of fire does not match up between the data collected for both charts--one shows instances that aren't in the other. But what it shows in the 3 day forecast calendar IS accurate, and you CAN use it to get a good feel for when to expect to find the weather popping if you use ti enough. The more you track it, the better you will get at setting aside the time for the weather you are after.

As for it only coming up in Cape Terrigan for Windsday right now, that's because (as I clearly explained earlier) it is November 9th on the game calendar, and is therefore out of season (2nd month of Fall). When it is in season, you wil see it forecast in multiple zones within the three day window--sometimes back to back in the same zone (noted I saw it do this morning as the season was ending). When in season, you can hit it a lot as back to back cycles, or at least with only 1 or 2 game days between them. Granted, sometimes it means switching zones....but with VW and OP's, it only takes a few minutes to move between them.

The bigger points are, that it is on a cycle, it is trackable, and there are tools available to help you track it.

Even though it may not show a zone in the forecast--it doesn't necessarily mean the weather is not in the forecast for that zone. But once you get accustomed to the patterns, you may get a feel for when it may be a good time to check some of those other zones as well. The trick is to actually take the time to actually do it.

And as for Mt Z......I got several cycles of fire there when I was working on trials with people and doing TAU missions (footprint search, getting lightning cell, and such). So, IDK why you aren't seeing it....perhaps because it wasn't in season at the time you were looking for it. Again....it boils down to being in synch with the pattern. The same goes for other elements too. Grauberg goes through it's phases of heavy thunder---not the best time to go there for wind at those times. Attowha has a similar shift between earth/wind. It's all cyclical, just have to track it and plan accordingly.