Suggestion: Remove Abyssea Time restrictions

[Tagus]

I think I'm going to change my vote to "keep abyssea the same". I always felt that jumping through an arbitrary, meaningless hoop had no value of any kind other than to waste my time, but it's obvious to me now that it actually has tremendous emotional value to the petty, fragile people who have accomplished all they wish to in abyssea. Perhaps when this game was actually a challenge you were unable to step upon it's glorious soap box, and the handicap ramp that is Abyssea allowed you to roll upwards to victory! Carry on thus, heroes of abyssea! I look forward to joining your ranks some day to look downwards upon those less dedicated.

[Sarick]

I keep seeing all these lame arguments. Removing time limitations aren't really needed. This is SE we're talking about here! All the complaints about the time restrictions being useless and redundant will only escalate into them probably adding a maximum time limit in zone.

Example: you're allowed to use as many stones as you can carry + the 120 minutes but the maximum time in zone TE or not can never exceed 6000 minutes.

Is this what you want? Seriously, the complaints I'm seeing are asking for this more less by pointing out how stones aren't worth anything and everyone can farm time to stay in zone forever. Most of the comments I've seen are more geared towards petty personal attacks then opinions or relevant arguments.

If it's time you want changed here are the things I think would help for both new and experienced players.

1st. to help new players just starting pro-rate the initial stones. This could be set too the date abyssal was first added up to a maximum of 200 starting stones. This way new players have a chance to get started.

2nd. Allow players to extend time beyond 120 minutes with key item stones up to a maximum of 600 minutes including time extensions. After 600 minutes are used no more stones can be used to extend time however, time chest still increase time. There would probably be a cap at this point since I've seen people have over 20,000 minutes.

On a final note: If you want to complain about people being in zone to long then SE is bound to place a time cap. If it's not obvious yet people who complain offen result in more developer BALANCE nerfs then buffs. MNK/WAR/SAM/NIN/RNG/DRG ring any bells?

[Tagus]

I think we all know they'll never change this. The time restriction is pretty much the only thing that requires management of any kind in Abyssea, and with SE's track record of new events generally moving back towards olde ffxi, if they were going to do anything to Abyssea it would more likely be to increase the challenge of it. I just feel like when I'm discussing a game that I have spent literally over a year of my life logged into at this point, anything that would make it easier for me to accomplish my goals should be supported. SE throws roadblocks in our way constantly, from the unnecessary 50 helms you need for your stage one kannagi that can't do crap, to the relic weapon requirements, etc...

Wanting things to be easier in a video game doesn't make you a noob, or lazy. It means you'd rather be spending time with your family, working out, earning a living, getting drunk with your friends, being a productive human being, etc. as opposed to sitting in front of the computer for that extra hour a day. I'm sorry to say, but you're a fucking retard if you see it any other way.

[Duelle]

Wanting things to be easier in a video game doesn't make you a noob, or lazy. It means you'd rather be spending time with your family, working out, earning a living, being a productive human being, etc. as opposed to sitting in front of the computer for that extra hour a day. I'm sorry to say, but you're a fucking retard if you see it any other way.

While I definitely agree with this (I could be doing something other than camp Ose over and over for that Jerkin if the thing would actually bother to drop), I don't agree with the removal of time limits in Abyssea. Abyssea as designed is pretty much perfect (barring the abuses to the proc system) and is what so many wanted FFXI to be all along. I'd rather the trade off be traverser stone limits than stupid things like drop rates, timers and so on.

Not to mention that yes, with the developers' current track record, they're more likely to nerf abyssea than anything else. They don't right now because they know the amount of anger that would hit the forums and that Cancel Account button on the Account Management page would be catastrophic to the game.

[Zerich]

SE was pretty clear in saying that there are other places to exp, by adding higher level mobs in areas with their very own FoV pages...

In short OP and OP-sympathizers, you guys missed out on 2 years worth of content/stones. <That's too bad.>

[Arcon]

In short OP and OP-sympathizers, you guys missed out on 2 years worth of content/stones.

Care to elaborate?

[Zerich]

Care to elaborate?

Sure, most of us have been building stones since Visions of Abyssea was released. Fast forward to today, we have over a year's (minus the ones we've obviously used) worth of stones to use in Aby. We got these stones from paying and keeping our accounts active during this time.

[Carala]

As a new player all over again, I have to say I'm in favor for removing the time restrictions or at least increasing the base amount a traverser stone lasts.

I was not able to have my character restored (account cancelled in 2004). When I decided to play again in January, I had to start from scratch. I talked to Joachim very early on. I collected all celerities & sojourns immediately upon the first few days I had gotten into abyssea content. Here I am a month or so later after all of that and I'm still pretty much living stone to stone.

I'm also a paying customer, paying for content that I can't readily access unless I stop doing it. Which is back ass backwards. I shouldn't have to stop doing the content... to be able to do it. That's just fucking retarded. Most peopl who have an abundance of stones that "will never run out" are people who have quit for a length of time and renewed their subscription. I'm not going to do that for the sake of being able to play content that I want to access now. Players shouldn't also be practically required to get into an exp / cruor farming party to max time just to be able to have more time to spend in these zones. This is also reinforced when these zones offer quests that require fame, some of which is incredibly boring to gain and very time consuming even with run speed bonuses.

So before anyone gets off on the elitist nerd bandwagon, think about that and try to picture yourself in a new players shoes. Trust me, there is not enough worthwhile things to do outside of abyssea with all missions complete.

[Sarick]

So before anyone gets off on the elitist nerd bandwagon, think about that and try to picture yourself in a new players shoes. Trust me, there is not enough worthwhile things to do outside of abyssea with all missions complete.

I did this last year with a new mule with 1 stone that now has over 600 stones. It's rough but you need to get in a good party build cruers and spend time that way or do something else instead of burning stones through your pocket.

At the start it's hard. It was hard for everyone but once you get past the slow part everything comes smoothly provided you're conservative. I'm not just someone posting a comment I speak from experence. When I leveled the other account I went crazy getting the abbsyte off the tonbarries with only 8 stones in my name. after spending 11+ stones I finally got it!

[RAIST]

I think what Zerich was trying to say is you don't HAVE to xp in Abyssea on your way to 78+, which is basically when you first actually get anything useful to equip from the content. There' is tons of other content you can participate in and gain some sense of accomplishment along the way---Rank Missions, ZM, CoP, TAU, WotG, etc. There is a TON of stuff other than Abyssea in this game.

TLDR: You can still xp elsewhere, at an accelerated pace even (hello FoV/GoV?), while your stones build up.