Reforged AF - Blocked on Step 1?

[Mefuki]

People use the same argument against Abyssea, saying you could just not use Atma to create artificial challenge. It just doesn't fly. People will never gimp themselves that way.

I agree with your final conclusion but I just want to say:

3 Heart Challenges in Zelda
Nuzlocke (with additional optional rules) in Pokemon
Level 1 Ozma Challenges in FFIX
Single Character Challenges in FFI
No Sphere Grid Initial Equipment No Customization Challenges in FFX
etc.

It happens all the time.

[bungiefanNA]

The old expansions were eased to be able to do them with smaller groups or solo because SE looked at the census data and saw that most of the player base had not completed the missions. Having gates like this tied to storyline makes more people complete the storyline. The changes they have been doing have been trying to get more people to complete such content in the game, by having a carrot at the end of it. They've had a lot of content since WotG, and not a lot of people completing it. That's been changing since Abyssea, Level Sync, and removal of level capped areas.

[Crevox]

The old expansions were eased to be able to do them with smaller groups or solo because SE looked at the census data and saw that most of the player base had not completed the missions. Having gates like this tied to storyline makes more people complete the storyline. The changes they have been doing have been trying to get more people to complete such content in the game, by having a carrot at the end of it. They've had a lot of content since WotG, and not a lot of people completing it. That's been changing since Abyssea, Level Sync, and removal of level capped areas.

They need to do more though even still. I went today to do more Aht Urhgan missions, and once again, I cannot continue because "wait until after Japanese midnight." This time gated content is so annoying.

After looking ahead the next few missions, it looks like it's going to happen again, twice. I imagine past that it will happen even more too....

[Xantavia]

They need to do more though even still. I went today to do more Aht Urhgan missions, and once again, I cannot continue because "wait until after Japanese midnight." This time gated content is so annoying.

After looking ahead the next few missions, it looks like it's going to happen again, twice. I imagine past that it will happen even more too....

I think time gates are something everybody will agree with you on. In game next day wait is almost a non-issue. Real life day wait is horrible. I think it came from breaks in the content as it was released but I can't say for sure.

[detlef]

I agree with your final conclusion but I just want to say:

3 Heart Challenges in Zelda
Nuzlocke (with additional optional rules) in Pokemon
Level 1 Ozma Challenges in FFIX
Single Character Challenges in FFI
No Sphere Grid Initial Equipment No Customization Challenges in FFX
etc.

It happens all the time.

Those are single player games. You'd be hard-pressed to find people who would apply that kind of mindset to FFXI. Like I said, people who want to challenge themselves will typically choose to reduce the number of people they bring rather than artificially gimp themselves. That's why you saw people posting solos of Genbu, Faust, Rapido, etc. as opposed to bragging about beating Kirin while not wearing pants.

[Vinedrai]

Why do people keep saying this? Do you honestly think that doing CoP is difficult in any way? It's not. There is no "reward" in completing this, there is no sense of achievement, there is no accomplishment. It's a gigantic series of fetch quests, and it's a gigantic waste of time. The story is great, but like I said, experiencing it in game just makes it take forever.

Nobody says I want everything for free. I already earned my AF items to trade in, but I can't. I WANT to do AA fights, but again, I can't, because I haven't finished Zilart. I want to do a LOT of things, but I can't because I have not finished all of these stupid fetch quests. I can't even get a party because I don't have Alexander.

Stop acting like completing CoP is actually something that is difficult and is something I need to complete to "earn" things. It's not. I shouldn't have to do this.

And yes, obviously I am completing it, because I don't have a choice.

Do you think that if you start another MMO now, it will just let you get a high-end item without some sort of progress? What if they didn't add limbus items to the campaign? You are just complaining that you already have the items but can't upgrade your AF but you aren't supposed to have some of those items in the first place. Just by giving you limbus items for free, SE has even saved you many days of limbus farming. In fact, it could possibly take longer than finishing CoP XD

What the heck is wrong with this community? It's people like you that stop new people from playing this game.

New people should have the patience and enthusiasm to enjoy the core game. You just keep repeating the same complaints with different words and it almost feels like you are trolling (not saying I think so) and that is one of the reasons that stops old people from standing official forums so I guess we are 1-1? But seriously, no one here is telling you to stop playing, we are actually telling you to play. What you want to do is like skipping through a movie or a book because you feel it is boring and only watching the conclusion.

[Zeargi]

Trials of the Magian were perfectly open and ready for anyone at all to come in and +2 their gear, I mean you don't even have to have Dynamis

Incorrect, You can't obtain a relic anything without first doing Dynamis to obtain the base. You couldn't get the +1/+2 items for Emy. Without doing something in abyssea.

It's an Insult to the people that made this game the way some of the people in this post complain about playing the game. Regardless of how it is "Now", the prerequisites are to get access to something... People worked hard on that previous content, just that same as they did for the newer content... You want to fight the Ark Angels Hard Mode, then face them in the story first.... You want to summon Alexander, then fight him as a Boss... It's not a hard concept. You shouldn't gain something for nothing, even they're fetch quest and beat 'em ups, just do them... Travel is UNGODLY easy... Hell, you can warp to the Throne Room... You don't even have to walk to the Shadow Lord but once... You can warp to the Freakin' Ark Angels, you can warp to Nashmau, warp to Raboa, warp to the burning circles, warp to the past, warp to outpost, warp to just about anywhere...

[Demonjustin]

Incorrect, You can't obtain a relic anything without first doing Dynamis to obtain the base.

This depends on the piece of gear, look at Login Campaigns, they have supplied us with the ability to get any piece of Xar or Beau piece of gear for some time now, and continue to do so, this is what I was refering to, my new character which is account is based on literally has not stepped foot in Dynamis, completed rank 3, or even hit level 50, yet on a whim I have access to the Relic Body & Head for RDM which are by far the most important pieces of that entire set, and in reality, the only two pieces that have not been replaced for the job as of yet. THF can do the same with the TH hands and other jobs have a similar situation but I care not to look into each piece, while I admit every piece can not be obtained without Dynamis, a few can.

It's an Insult to the people that made this game the way some of the people in this post complain about playing the game. Regardless of how it is "Now", the prerequisites are to get access to something... People worked hard on that previous content, just that same as they did for the newer content... You want to fight the Ark Angels Hard Mode, then face them in the story first.... You want to summon Alexander, then fight him as a Boss... It's not a hard concept. You shouldn't gain something for nothing, even they're fetch quest and beat 'em ups, just do them... Travel is UNGODLY easy... Hell, you can warp to the Throne Room... You don't even have to walk to the Shadow Lord but once... You can warp to the Freakin' Ark Angels, you can warp to Nashmau, warp to Raboa, warp to the burning circles, warp to the past, warp to outpost, warp to just about anywhere...

This player base dwindles in time as all games do, which means we need more players to take their place. Now I am all for reasonable requirements, I personally have no problem whatsoever with Alex, Odin, Dynamis, Limbus, or any other piece of content in this game having its requirements to do it so long as its reasonable and makes sense. What I am talking about being stupid here, is the fact that you need Sea access, that it, access for an event completely unrelated to any item required for AF enhancements to RF, in order to upgrade your AF gear.

Do you think that if you start another MMO now, it will just let you get a high-end item without some sort of progress? What if they didn't add limbus items to the campaign? You are just complaining that you already have the items but can't upgrade your AF but you aren't supposed to have some of those items in the first place. Just by giving you limbus items for free, SE has even saved you many days of limbus farming. In fact, it could possibly take longer than finishing CoP XD

Since when did RF upgrades have anything to do with Limbus? Show me 1 item that requires Limbus to obtain that is used in the process of upgrading a normal piece of AF into RF gear.

New people should have the patience and enthusiasm to enjoy the core game. You just keep repeating the same complaints with different words and it almost feels like you are trolling (not saying I think so) and that is one of the reasons that stops old people from standing official forums so I guess we are 1-1? But seriously, no one here is telling you to stop playing, we are actually telling you to play. What you want to do is like skipping through a movie or a book because you feel it is boring and only watching the conclusion.

People play a game to have fun, everyone's sense of fun is different, if you find fun in going through hours upon hours or even days upon days of quests to get to basic gear that you had the items ready for, but lacked a simple quest being finished before the NPC would allow you to turn it in, then awesome, but most do not. I have quite a few friends I have tried to get into this game before that I know on Xbox and otherwise, I have had a 0% success rate with getting people into it due to the fact that every single one who got the game has played a month, told me its taking to long to get to a point of understanding what they are doing/need to do in the game to progress and the fact that everything is so drawn out to get to a decent point that they just can not bother to spend that much time starting a game.

Most games nowadays let you jump into the game and play it with others after a short period of time, this game, forces you to do old content that is easy by any stretch of the imagination and literally feels like a waste of time, its boring to most, and you have no choice but to do it in order to get to the point in the game where you can actually play with others, even then, things still suck because until you figure out how to gear and play in specific events you will be looked down upon and called gimp by everyone around you. The learning curve in this game sucks and the amount you need to do before you can even start to really play it and feel welcome in the game normally is absurd. They have helped to fix some of these things through systems such as Trust which help get people into the game faster, but if you truly think that people should be patient and enthused about playing a game and trying to get into it after the 10+ hours it takes to install and update on top of the days it will take you to get to a point of playing with others in a decent way, I think you're out of your mind.

I seriously can not for the life of me understand why such a simple improvement that makes sense is being so heavily opposed by people when the original complaint was about a requirement that doesn't even make sense!

[Crevox]

Do you think that if you start another MMO now, it will just let you get a high-end item without some sort of progress?

Actually, yes, most MMORPGs allow you to skip old content. When new expansions or tiers of content release, old content is made skippable and irrelevant, so you can play the new content without being held back by old content.

You want to summon Alexander, then fight him as a Boss

Then let me fight him without going through a ton of time gated quests first.

[Demonjustin]

Then let me fight him without going through a ton of time gated quests first.

I say just remove the JPM wait times.