Interim Report – Sorry to keep you all waiting!

[Raksha]

Inc haste nerfs.

#rumorstarted

[Mirage]

Inc haste nerfs.

#rumorstarted

It might actually be healthy for game balance. Of course, it would require current content that is made with the currently existing haste functions in mind to be adjusted too.

It could make things like Apocalypse's haste more valuable, 5/5 desperate blows+hasso actually do something, and haste samba amount to more than ~2% haste when in a high buff situation.

I would be fine with it if in medium haste situations, you felt almost no difference, but in high haste situations, average buffers would only get us to something like 75% haste, while really good buffers would manage to bring us to 81 or 82%

[saevel]

It might actually be healthy for game balance. Of course, it would require current content that is made with the currently existing haste functions in mind to be adjusted too.

It could make things like Apocalypse's haste more valuable, 5/5 desperate blows+hasso actually do something, and haste samba amount to more than ~2% haste when in a high buff situation.

I would be fine with it if in medium haste situations, you felt almost no difference, but in high haste situations, average buffers would only get us to something like 75% haste, while really good buffers would manage to bring us to 81 or 82%

I think their referring to alter how haste works in general. Currently it's used as a percentage delay reduction.

50% haste is actually 100/(100-50) type formula instead of a (100+50)/100 type of scaling.

[Sapphires]

Im going to rant on voidwatch a bit here since some others brought it up:


Right now there is a voidwatch shout after not seeing any for a couple hours. I am posting on this forum instead of joining that shout because I am second guessing whether i should spend 120k gil yet again for 6 more chances at something that has a 1 in 1500 chance of dropping.

You have game content I want to play and enjoy but you have turned it into a moneysink that has become increasingly frustrating due to 'bad luck' and a system that replenishes voidstones too slowly.
Something like Qilin is not hard game content, it is now a loot grind that I have to keep paying gil to participate in for a rare/ex drop.

I use rubi cells, red alignment always capped to 550% so what gives with your battle content design and sense of balance? I enjoy the luck factor but there comes a tipping point where players get bitter and angry their time and gil invested does not yield the treasure they desire from these events.


To compound this frustration, voidwatch participation has been suffering also partly due to not everyone being willing to 'gamble' on voidwatch and buy voiddust. Your perceived success of the event in the past was largely tainted by the cruor->gil abuse that had been going on.
Since that correction to the cruor->gil was made, event participation has dropped off significantly because voiddust are no longer subsidized through the previous cruor->gil conversion.

When I want to play FFXI and do voidwatch, most of the time im doing something else like reading forums and glancing at the chatlog window for a voidwatch shout. This is why people say they 'log in and have nothing to do' because they are doing the same thing. People are standing around waiting for something to happen, but your game design and RL time limtations on things like voidstones replenishing are largely to blame here.

I feel that the dev team should rebalance the event and encourage participation in voidwatch by having stones replenish quicker or implement an optional reward system where perhaps some lofty goal of turning in 1000 petrifacts would entitle the player to a pulse weapon/item/abjuration of their choice. At least with an absurd requirement of 1000 petrifacts, there is a 'light at the end of the tunnel' for someone grinding voidwatch that much.

The problem with FFXI battle content design and balance is that it is afraid of people 'winning too fast':
far too many hours before voidstones replenish
1 day wait to enter dynamis again
20 hour cooldown on meeble phermones
3day wait for einherjar
1 day wait for an imperial ID tag so I can do 1 assault/nyzul run
and so on.....

stop making game content that I have to wait around for to play. People making more than 1 empyrean/relic should have made this obviously clear to you by now that people will keep playing even if they 'win' at something. People wont quit, they'll find something else to do and keep paying their subscriptions instead of quitting out of frustration.

[Waldrich]

Im going to rant on voidwatch a bit here since some others brought it up:


Right now there is a voidwatch shout after not seeing any for a couple hours. I am posting on this forum instead of joining that shout because I am second guessing whether i should spend 120k gil yet again for 6 more chances at something that has a 1 in 1500 chance of dropping.

You have game content I want to play and enjoy but you have turned it into a moneysink that has become increasingly frustrating due to 'bad luck' and a system that replenishes voidstones too slowly.
Something like Qilin is not hard game content, it is now a loot grind that I have to keep paying gil to participate in for a rare/ex drop.

I use rubi cells, red alignment always capped to 550% so what gives with your battle content design and sense of balance? I enjoy the luck factor but there comes a tipping point where players get bitter and angry their time and gil invested does not yield the treasure they desire from these events.


To compound this frustration, voidwatch participation has been suffering also partly due to not everyone being willing to 'gamble' on voidwatch and buy voiddust. Your perceived success of the event in the past was largely tainted by the cruor->gil abuse that had been going on.
Since that correction to the cruor->gil was made, event participation has dropped off significantly because voiddust are no longer subsidized through the previous cruor->gil conversion.

When I want to play FFXI and do voidwatch, most of the time im doing something else like reading forums and glancing at the chatlog window for a voidwatch shout. This is why people say they 'log in and have nothing to do' because they are doing the same thing. People are standing around waiting for something to happen, but your game design and RL time limtations on things like voidstones replenishing are largely to blame here.

I feel that the dev team should rebalance the event and encourage participation in voidwatch by having stones replenish quicker or implement an optional reward system where perhaps some lofty goal of turning in 1000 petrifacts would entitle the player to a pulse weapon/item/abjuration of their choice. At least with an absurd requirement of 1000 petrifacts, there is a 'light at the end of the tunnel' for someone grinding voidwatch that much.

The problem with FFXI battle content design and balance is that it is afraid of people 'winning too fast':
far too many hours before voidstones replenish
1 day wait to enter dynamis again
20 hour cooldown on meeble phermones
3day wait for einherjar
1 day wait for an imperial ID tag so I can do 1 assault/nyzul run
and so on.....

stop making game content that I have to wait around for to play. People making more than 1 empyrean/relic should have made this obviously clear to you by now that people will keep playing even if they 'win' at something. People wont quit, they'll find something else to do and keep paying their subscriptions instead of quitting out of frustration.

There is no words to define how I love this post.

[Camate]

Greetings,

I’d like to share a follow-up post from Producer Akihiko Matsui in regards to Perfect Defense/Embrava adjustments as well as content adjustments.

Hello,

Thank you for all of the feedback since the version update regarding Legion, Neo-Nyzul, the Salvage expansion, and Meeble Burrows.

• Regarding the 600 skill cap mentioned in the explanation for the adjustments to Perfect Defense
  I’d like to apologize that this was conveyed as if it was going to be immediately possible to reach 600 and it also was received like the development team did not understand the current situation. Also, I apologize that this was not followed-up on sooner.
  
  I believe that in future posts there will be cases that we give similar explanations, and we would appreciate it greatly if you could take these to mean that “while it is currently not possible to do this, there is a possibility for growth in the future.”
  
  It’s extremely difficult to have everyone come to the same understanding on the first try no matter how we convey or write it, so we would like to respond to this kind of posts in a shorter time frame by rephrasing the content or through other techniques in order to improve communication.
  
  
• Embrava stats
  I’ve been hearing that the reason for changing the regain effect to refresh was to turn it into a spell that would give a beneficial effect to not only the frontline jobs, but to backline jobs as well.
  
  I’ve been looking over all of the adjustment suggestions that you all have submitted and discussed it with the job lead as well as the content leads, but this is something that needs to be done at this specific time, so we will be proceeding with the original adjustment plan.
  
  
• Content adjustment
  While I won’t be getting into the specifics about which aspects and such, I have been speaking the development team members about adjustments and re-adjustments for Neo-Nyzul, Legion, Odin, and Voidwatch (up to Provenance watcher) based on the adjustments to Perfect Defense and Embrava.
  (Based on the above adjustments, if adjustments to the Salvage expansion are necessary we will look into that as well.)
  
  However, in regards to Arch Dynamis Lord, since this is a monster that drops materials for upgrading relics, we plan on maintaining the current conditions.
  
  Additionally, for Meeble Burrows, with the version update that is scheduled for the beginning of the year, the effect of Embrava will be made to reflect the adjustments similar to the Salvage expansion when we implement the new expeditions.

We will be working hard on development so that Seekers of Adoulin is enjoyable and also to reflect the need and importance of the above adjustments. Thank you very much.

[Rubicant82]

Embrava stats
I’ve been hearing that the reason for changing the regain effect to refresh was to turn it into a spell that would give a beneficial effect to not only the frontline jobs, but to backline jobs as well.

I’ve been looking over all of the adjustment suggestions that you all have submitted and discussed it with the job lead as well as the content leads, but this is something that needs to be done at this specific time, so we will be proceeding with the original adjustment plan.

まずい考え

Back line jobs have PLENTY of support. This is nothing more then a "I'm sorry we gave you something too nice, we are taking it back." I'm sorry but that is how most players see it. The corporation has let down to many people with this game and honestly the more you change it the worse off it gets in most cases.

[Prrsha]

...honestly the more you change it the worse off it gets in most cases.

If the game never changed, you'd have more Tanaka drop rates. At least the new dev believes in point based system to obtain loot.

Embrava shouldn't have been implemented the way it was in the first point. If it wasn't added, people wouldn't be complaining now because there would be nothing to complain about. In addition, content shouldn't have been tailored to be zerged as well (and as a result embrava was needed to do so). I think the changes are being done one at a time to get away from "zerging" and replace it with a new method of boss fights. Rome wasn't built in a day and I doubt zerging will go away anytime soon. It started with DRK zergs back before the level 75 cap was raised. After that you had a haste nerf. People complained as well then but they managed to adapt.

The problem that differs from the DRK zerg and the current zerging, is the content that has been added that just begs to be done that way. I really really hope Matsui-san takes a good look at how the boss content was designed in his absence and sees it needs major revisions. What seemed like a good idea on paper for a boss for level 75, doesn't work well at 99. When you pass 75, certain flaws in the entire battle system become evident. The small imbalance gaps of the 75 era turn into giant rifts at 99. I really don't think the devs back then really saw what was coming when they removed the level 75 cap and how the math works when you apply it now. It was as if they never planned to ever lift the cap.

What needs done now, is an entire re-work of the battle system from the ground up. Haste needs reworking... enfeebling... subjob combos... and TP gain. Also defense values and DPS. All of this should be fixed before even considering adding new jobs. If 75% of your jobs aren't really needed, why add more? Shouldn't you retool the existing content first before adding say... "play as a monster" to the mix?

I fear it is out of Matsui-san's hands right now. SE has set a release date and I bet his higher-ups are breathing down his neck. I don't envy his job... it must be as hectic as hell. I hope everything can be balanced before the expansion release because the expansion will need constant attention as more and more content is added on. If SE wishes to keep their gold mine going, I hope they devote more staff to FFXI so both can be worked on at once.

I have faith that Matsui-san can set things right (he did design the battle system of the game after all). I just worry on how long it will take with so many issues at once. Here's hoping to a good new year for FFXI! :3

[FrankReynolds]

If the game never changed, you'd have more Tanaka drop rates.

Complaining that they often change the game in ways that contradict the written expressed requests of the players is in no way the same as saying that they shouldn't change the game at all.

These guys consistently ask us what we think they should do and then do the opposite.

[Seyomeyo]

Now why did we have to throw in anything about Haste when the community is already addled and exhausted?