PVP!

[Harukusan]

Adding gear rewards specific to PvP on FFXI is a great reward for people who enjoy Ballista, and even Brenner (I guess). But as I mentioned before, adding general rewards that impact the game overall could invite players who would simply exploit it to reap easy treasure. The idea is a bit flawed. If there was a way where it could be inviting to players who aren't fond of Ballista, while making it challenging for them to get what they're after, it might get them to take it more seriously.

By exploitation, my biggest concern would be maybe 2+ people who take turns killing each other and scoring for the sake of building points to purchase rewards with Ballista points, or be instantly rewarded with items through a potential new idea that was brought up before. My solution would be to simply to take them both out! Anyone who has been there can figure out who is playing their part to benefit the team and who is there to screw around and feed the other team free wins.

[Alhanelem]

Brenner was interesting at first, but it's too complicated. it should have just been simply capture the flag, not "beat up the flag stands and capture multiple flags."

[Alhanelem]

Bumpity! This is a pretty important topic to me, so keep the discussion going! Would it really bother anyone if SE introduced rewards you could buy with ballista points, such as unique equipment whose main effects are limited to ballista/brenner only? If no- would it bother you if, further, equipment was obtainable through ballista points which was effective outside of ballista, as long as it wasn't superior to empyrean stuff? The promise of an at least slightly useful reward would really drum up some interest, since no one does anything in this game if it doesnt have a reward =\

It would also be nice to have an automated competition system where you could earn the items from the ballista royale. I'm sure some people would be interested in getting exclusive stuff like that.

They should also make it so you can recall ballista titles you've earned at the title bards.

[Harukusan]

Bumpity! This is a pretty important topic to me, so keep the discussion going!

This is the only thread I keep up with, all the others are just dumb boring crap. Most of it probably belongs in the "New Player Guidance" Section of the forum.

Bring Ballista back to life!

[Zeh]

Ballista is still alive, and the only people who continue to play are those who love the game for what it is. They don't need material rewards as an incentive to play. They play to have fun. Introducing "rewards" for Ballista would only temporarily interest people to play, if any at all. When the experience point reward were added to the Ballista system, it didn't invite any new players. Instead, it was just a nice end-of-the-meal tip for people who already played. Sure, the Ballista Royale (reward) sparked new interest at the time, but the majority of people stopped playing shortly after it ended. If people only play Ballista for some sort of "gain", then that would defeat the purpose of the game.

[Alhanelem]

I find the problems with pvp is what it has been right the way through, the battle system is just too slow to make it particularly interesting over pve content which would lead to rewards and the game itself never really seemed to be designed well for it.

I really beg to differ, and if you think combat is too slow in PvP, then you haven't really experienced it. Ballista can get very frantic when you have two full parties (or more). And fighting in parties is what FFXI is all about and when the PvP gets really interesting.

In the end if you want to pvp go play a game orientated for pvp and leave ffxi for pve.

Absolutely not, because FFXI's combat system is much more fun than any of those games.

PvP is only successful in WoW because you can get great gear out of it. If there were no good rewards, it would die out.

[Alhanelem]

and the only people who continue to play are those who love the game for what it is.

Those people aren't a large enough population for good matches. I'm lucky if I can persuade ONE other person to do it. The incentives are more for people who are less aware of ballista or couldn't be troubled to do the unnecessary license quest (something that should be removed).

When the experience point reward were added to the Ballista system, it didn't invite any new players.

That's because it was a piddly amount (500 EXP at 75 cap for an hour's worth of playing), and wasn't based on performance.

If they had a tournament each year, it would have helped keep interest higher.

If people only play Ballista for some sort of "gain", then that would defeat the purpose of the game.

No, it wouldn't. In most cases, we seek out fun events and get cool stuff. Ballista is a fun event but you don't get cool stuff. Very few people do anything in the game without some sort of incentive. WotG's end reward was pretty meh, so it didn't spark much interest in completing it, preventing those who were really enjoying the storyline and cutscenes from being easily able to accomplish it. It may sound sad, but some kind of material incentive is needed.

[CebPtolemy]

I find the problems with pvp is what it has been right the way through, the battle system is just too slow to make it particularly interesting over pve content which would lead to rewards and the game itself never really seemed to be designed well for it. It worked in a clunky kind of way for 60 caps when a decent number of people bothered to show up, but nowadays i cant see it ever recovering.
Comparing it to a more pvp orientated mmo such as WoW the tempo issue is a large factor as to why its so popular, stuns and interrupts become game winners apposed to a mild annoyance in between waiting for your ni timer. Coupled with a lack of pvp orientated moves such as a lack of crowd control ffxi just cant keep up. Honestly i can't see the implementation of a reward and ranking system or even an overhaul of jobs for pvp balancing being enough to resurrect this long dead horse.
In the end if you want to pvp go play a game orientated for pvp and leave ffxi for pve.

[CebPtolemy]

The gear you gain through the WoW pvp system is all but useless in any pve content anyway so you're only bettering yourself for more pvp... Which i concede is sticking to the mmo stereotype of killing things to gear and kill things more effectively. However this being said it isn't the gear that makes people pvp or there would be no point in doing it at all since if you're gearing for pvp you obviously already want to experience pvp o_o

And i agree ballista can become frantic, but this only occurs when Shadows/SS/Phalanx falls off and needs reapplying, or when you don't have defensive spells at your command for some reason. At which point it becomes a race to reapply them or run away, apposed to WoW's system where its a burn fight which boils down to who can outplay their opponent or in most cases who has the better healer coupled with higher resilience rating. Neither system is great but WoW's does at least feel like it has been properly implemented and can be hectic even in 1v1 fights apposed to ffxi's "Ballista CAN get very frantic when you have two parties"

[Alhanelem]

The gear you gain through the WoW pvp system is all but useless in any pve content anyway

I've played WoW for quite some time and that's not really true. At worst, you can get a PvP epic gear set and be at a minimum "ready" to start raiding. e.g. your "gear score," the only thing anyone cares about in the game, is high enough.

And i agree ballista can become frantic, but this only occurs when Shadows/SS/Phalanx falls off and needs reapplying,

That's not true either. I can assure you, sub NINs don't all run away and panic every time I cast diaga to wipe their shadows

can be hectic even in 1v1 fights apposed to ffxi's

FFXI's combat is designed around parties, not 1v1 fights. Ballista and Brenner are designed around parties, not 1v1 fights. In WoW every class 100% stands on its own. Everyone can do whatever in a battleground and still win as long as they head in the general direction of their objective. in FFXI, all the key abilities are spread amongst different classes, thus more teamwork is necessary. This teamwork is what makes FFXI's combat fun, be it PvE or PvP.