Alliance based content

[Mirage]

I think in the events where you can choose between 6 or 18 people (or anything in between), players should be able to get the same items no matter which version they choose, but that item drop rates should be higher in the 18 man version, simply because there's more people competing for the same items. An item with a 20% drop rate when fighting the alliance version shouldn't have more than around 5-6% drop rate in a single party version. Of course, if you choose to attempt on the version that is intended for 18 people with less than 18 people, you shouldn't be penalized for that, but instead get the same high drop rate split among fewer people.

[Mefuki]

Post #15

Agreed. Monster statistics, reward quantity and drop rate should simply be on a sliding scale with how many people you choose to bring to that content.

[saevel]

Agreed. Monster statistics, reward quantity and drop rate should simply be on a sliding scale with how many people you choose to bring to that content.

Unfortunately that's not how the difficulty works on Delve. NM's have less HP but their other stats remain the same, they still hit just as hard and require just as much attack / acc to hit cap. This results in 6 man being much harder then 18 man. In a 18 member run you can bring 2 NQ BRD's which are easy to find and require no time consuming gear along with 2 COR's. You rotate them for four songs and four rolls on each of your six DD's. You'll be using Dia III and / or Geo debuffs to compensate for the NQ BRD's with an extra slot or two to spare. Go to six man and now your down to three DD's each receiving two songs (assuming WHM BRD SCH) if you bring one of those same NQ BRD's. You won't be having as many debuffs and your stunner won't have another person to share recast timers with. This results in your damage being cut by far more then the HP of the NM's and you end up having to be really picky who you bring, only top end people who already have all the gear that drops. The MNK's your bringing to Tojil better already have the knuckles that drop from Tojil, and any other DD's your bring also need the best respective weapons.

That is something lots of people don't realize and why so many are failing on the six man. If you have a bunch of folks that need the KI, put together a 18 man run and win / farm plasm that way. A six man group can take one weak member and only if they have COR leveled.

[Mefuki]

This is one are that SE is really struggling with, they can't seem to find a balance with accessibility and are really afraid of allowing gear from hard event A to become accessibly through easy event B at a much slower rate.

...you end up having to be really picky who you bring, only top end people who already have all the gear that drops. The MNK's your bringing to Tojil better already have the knuckles that drop from Tojil, and any other DD's your bring also need the best respective weapons.

Indeed, both major problems. SE seemed to get the former correct with revamped AF/Relic. Collecting Chapters in these different ways was a really great idea. I'm totally OK with the idea of taking much longer then people with connections. So long as I can actually make progress and I'm not just told, "Oh, you don't know X person or Y people? Well, you can't do it". Because the issue here isn't that I don't want to put in effort (I slowly grinded gil for 2 months everyday to get enough to buy my HMP last year), it's that I want to actually play the game: Without being told to wait 2+ hours before I can start making progress or that I'm just not allowed to have X gear because I don't really know certain people in game.

Basically, this:

The separator between "hard core" and "casual" should not be the gear that is obtainable but rather the speed at which it's obtained.

[Draylo]

Indeed, both major problems. SE seemed to get the former correct with revamped AF/Relic. Collecting Chapters in these different ways was a really great idea. I'm totally OK with the idea of taking much longer then people with connections. So long as I can actually make progress and I'm not just told, "Oh, you don't know X person or Y people? Well, you can't do it". Because the issue here isn't that I don't want to put in effort (I slowly grinded gil for 2 months everyday to get enough to buy my HMP last year), it's that I want to actually play the game: Without being told to wait 2+ hours before I can start making progress or that I'm just not allowed to have X gear because I don't really know certain people in game.

Basically, this:

I have no idea what you mean by "you don't know x or y person"? Are you trying to say that if you don't know specific people you are locked out of content? That is hardly true, you can do anything in this game lol. You just need to put forth the effort in getting the people together, which is something people like you don't do. Then you blame it on game design because you can't participate when that is your own doing. Of course you don't want to put in effort, you are the type of player holding this game back. This isn't WoW and obviously SE didn't intend it to be that, they did that with XIV.

[saevel]

I have no idea what you mean by "you don't know x or y person"? Are you trying to say that if you don't know specific people you are locked out of content? That is hardly true, you can do anything in this game lol. You just need to put forth the effort in getting the people together, which is something people like you don't do. Then you blame it on game design because you can't participate when that is your own doing. Of course you don't want to put in effort, you are the type of player holding this game back. This isn't WoW and obviously SE didn't intend it to be that, they did that with XIV.

Yeah you've been living in your own little bubble too long.

What he's talking about is having access to 3~4 song BRDs, high level experienced DD's and other highly skilled support crew. The design of FFXI is such that you can't do anything without tons of support and good support players tend to be very choosey of their play groups. Used to be called "princess Bard syndrome" but has expanded to include stun SCH's and competent WHM's. DD's are fairly common but DD's who visit the forums and learn how to build gear sets are pretty rare. So no mater how good you are, you still need to find other people who are capable of completing the content, and the higher SE sets that bar the fewer and fewer people are able to participate. And MMO's are 100% about participation.

[Draylo]

Yeah you've been living in your own little bubble too long.

What he's talking about is having access to 3~4 song BRDs, high level experienced DD's and other highly skilled support crew. The design of FFXI is such that you can't do anything without tons of support and good support players tend to be very choosey of their play groups. Used to be called "princess Bard syndrome" but has expanded to include stun SCH's and competent WHM's. DD's are fairly common but DD's who visit the forums and learn how to build gear sets are pretty rare. So no mater how good you are, you still need to find other people who are capable of completing the content, and the higher SE sets that bar the fewer and fewer people are able to participate. And MMO's are 100% about participation.

You don't need 3~4 song BRDs, read my previous post as to why. High level experienced DD's? Why shouldn't they be required for the HARDEST content in the game? You should need skilled crew to do things that are considered highest tier, not random scrubs who can't heal or do anything because they suck. You can simply join a group that is capable of winning or you can move servers until you find one. Even if SE has ONLY 6 man content, you still NEED to have competent people to win it. That is why you don't see anyone beating Kamnalaut for the new battle, or even beating the 6 man delve. This doesn't change anything except require you to bring less idiots to the battle. I didn't say I wanted to restrict content to 18 people only (which I would rather, but I understand the general population sucks as evidenced by this thread) I wanted sliding rewards. Why should they get to bring 6 gimps to attempt content that gives the same rewards as 18 people? If I enjoy content with 18 people that is beneficial to them all, why do I get shafted simply because casual #1 can only play two hours a week? That is making me unable to participate in content I desire, which is allianced based.

[Mefuki]

Post #31

Apologies for being unclear. I'm taking about logging in and saying to yourself, for example, "I feel like doing delve." You go into your LS and you ask,

"Where's *insert name of your LS's 4 song BRDs, Stun SCHs and DD that already have the gear from the content you want to do*.

"Oh, they're not online or they don't want to do that? Guess I'm not doing that today."

...

Shortly after, Steve the 4 song BRD logs in and says, "Anyone doing anything? You want to do Delve? Me too. Now let's both wait for everyone else to get on."

"Yeah, I really want to do Delve today so let's wait."

Now, I never said that SE should get rid of alliances. I simply said that it would be great if there was a sliding scale, from solo all the way up to 18-man, where monster statistics, reward quantity and drop rate/points earned(if it's a point/gear exchange system) scaled with how many you choose to bring. This way, you can log in and start playing any part of the game you want while giving incentives to partying up. Think kind of like a drop in-drop out system. So, under this system you log in and you say to yourself, "I feel like doing Delve". You go into your LS

"Does anyone want to come?"

"Oh, No one's here right now. Guess I'll go on my own."

...

Shortly after Steve the 4 song BRD logs in and says, "Anyone doing anything? You want to do Delve? Me too. Let's go together, It'll be a slightly tougher but we'll get more as a team."

"Yeah, I was just about to leave to go do it but let's go together."

Like I said, I'm not against putting forth effort. In abyssea's heyday, when I couldn't get body seals, I took a couple of days and soloed them via quest spam. Did it take longer then it could have if I had more people? Yes, but I didn't mind that much. At least I was making progress.

I spent around 2 months everyday farming the gil I needed for HMP. Did it take longer then it could have if I had more people? Yes, but I didn't mind that much. At least I was making progress.

I could go on but to summirize: I'm not opposed to putting forth effort. That's why I'd rather get working and progress on my goals instead of just waiting around for everyone to show up.