February 2020 FINAL FANTASY XI Digest

[Spaitin]

Or you implement this :

Placed into June Digest reply, but relates to items, crafting, economy + econ health
This is a concern for the longevity of FFXI, the current state of our community and the overall health of each server.

At this point i really really really believe that FFXI is unworthy of it's ignorant peer to peer transaction interfaces. Unregulated interface design has lead to a manipulated and sometimes corrupt environment. All items in game categorized as equipment should be account-mail only (bound to account). This specifically concerns only the mail system, equipment will still have a place in the economy -> Read Below. Increase mail outslot/inslot to 32+. Trade boxes have the option for a gil trade completely removed. Crafting skill level cap per character reworked to allow all crafts to achieve maximum skill level.

"EX" itemization tag is completely removed from game with the exception of reforged armors, augmented equipment or equipment with Rank point upgrades. All items are given a NPC mediatory vendor listing in a new player supplied warehousing/pawnshop style environment including items that have "EX" tag removed. Auction house is removed and replaced with this new interface. SE dev team + director + producer select a base exchangeable gil rate for said items in the new warehousing system. Dev team + director + producer can elect to set a minimum and maximum value for every listing. Bazaar is linked to new warehousing system, prices of items placed into bazaar are set automatically by the current listing price through the new item commerce system. Item listings are subject to the supply and demand through easily constructed price formulas by which small percentages of value are subtracted or added based on stock levels and availability of items within each listing. Prices never exceed the maximum price for items that existing NPC vendors sell at: this includes all items that are currently sold by every NPC vendor. When selling to NPC vendors players are paid a suggested amount of 75%-90% of the item's current listing price. Listing prices adjust automatically based upon inventory levels. Sold items are automatically accounted for and added to the warehousing inventory. Inventory levels begin at and can become zero.

All equipment purchased with "Sparks" will receive a random stat augment applicable to the jobs that access user prerequisite. Example: Cloth armor sold from Sparks vendor with job listings for BLM/WHM/RDM/SCH/GEO/SMN could receive an augment of +INT or +MND based upon the level range bracket it's sold through.
New NPCs created that will remove any augment for the cost of X 100 the item's minimum equipment level. One placed in each city where sparks vendors are currently located.

They wont even give bst 119 pets. your solution is never going to happen simply because they lack they man power. Honestly, the cool thing about this game is how broken it is. These anti merc solutions are pretty dumb to be honest. Ill bet my left leg they NEVER remove the AH. This solution is actually laughable. Why not just play elder scrolls games solo?

You could make everything drop into personal pools, but then you get mercs selling kills left and right where the buyer has to be in the zone and BAM all of escha is even more laggy. Solutions have to be realistic lol. Expect Mireu level effort for solutions. Revamping all gear and currencies. LMAO

[Zehira]

Okay, I can tell you what I think now.

Asura is a very special server (great community btw) and this /yell was a very interesting feature. Mercing was never a thing in Pandemonium before both servers got merged. For years, I always wondered about Asura before I moved back. I got invited to the first linkshell. A few of days later, the holder of linkshell told me to recruit members so I went ahead and recruit members for her. I recruited more than 50 members in the same day I started recruiting as I basically said welcome to the family! Oops. Not a smart move. Everyone felt strange to each other and it annoyed the holder of linkshell the hell out. It took me several months to learn this community before I stop being the nicest person on the server.

Today, times have been changed. FFXI is no more. We are basically living in FFXIV's world where free companies and duty finder do not exist. People want to solo most of time. As I have told several months ago, discord is a very important thing to have. Discord keeps everyone in touch with. While I am having a break from doing the content with other members, my discord keeps getting 10+ notifications from the linkshell every week so it does tell me they are still doing stuff together. They are still recruiting new members to replace retired members. I guess I must be very lucky to be in one of the most active linkshells. That could be a reason why there is 95% mercing in /yell. Of course, one person takes all loots and divides loots by how many members who have ran an event. They have to be honorable enough to keep the linkshell going forever. Take a lot of practices with the same teammates every week. It's an old school MMO for everyone to enjoy.

Welcome to FFXI-2. /shrug You can still start looking for members if there is nothing to do. No one likes to stand in town and watch people selling content in /yell.

[TullemoreAsuraFFXI]

Postings and complaints beat around the bushes, some have outright pointed fingers at the correct culprits. Where there is a demand there will be supply (Academic Econ 101). So here are the elephants in the room that each have guilt in creating a mercenary customer.

1. Bots (3rd party ToS violations that script commands into FFXI).
2. Inflation of gil present on active accounts (This is made worse for every bot implemented).
3. Conditions by which HQ (high quality) synthesis product results occur.
4. Escutcheon creation sinks of time and gil which is compounded by the source of necessary material being obstructed by bots. (The crafting shields).
5. Ultimate Weapon (REMA) domination within 18 of 22 available jobs (Power Creep).
6. Conditions by which Ultimate Weapons (REMA) upgrade and the economic+acquisition grind that is attached to each. (Yes, all the non-gil REMA currencies).
7. Un-evolved /seacom party finding and communications assistance.
8. VE, E, N, D, VD reward disparities for battles with these difficulty selections.
9. Power Creep requirements to qualify as a competent participant for present-day ilvl 119+ battles that allocate economic rewards.
10. Monopolized and outrageous NPC vendor gil sinks attached to Job Specific Equipment reforge process and advanced crafting recipies.
11. Items tagged "EX" from battles that DO NOT have any relevant problem of a open world obstruction due to them being procured from instanced content (HTBF Omen Escha).
12. Direct un-mediated peer-to-peer transaction capabilities.
13. Persistence of RMT distribution, customers and supply chain.
14. Battle conditions, enemy capabilities, and player established counter-measure strategies that exclude a bracket of job type or dramatically favor specific party compositions as it pertains to jobs.
15. The mutilation of magic burst as a competent offensive strategy for significant content such as Ambuscade and the failure to adequately balance the utilization of BLM job as an elemental damage source with the capabilities of other offensive jobs.

Character equipment requirements, Job point requirement, and power creep along with the meta party compositions utilized by players have created a significant barrier to entry as a competent participant in content traversed for advanced character development. Players enamored with progress that is only directly or potentially achievable through economic purchases have these concerns as motive to extract gil from any viable source. Undeveloped or underdeveloped characters have to meet or exceed the content and player enforced barrier of competency for participation.

Gil has become the short-cut. The choice is to struggle with the status of incompetence or to purchase the minimum of competence which is the equipment requirement for a job to adequately fulfill it's placement within a party. The legitimate resolution is to form a linkshell, community, and/or static of players that have comparable capabilities and limitations that would climb the ladder of achievement together. Due to #7 and #14 the establishment of such social networks is in a dismal state. This leaves the unregulated marketplace as a means to attain requirements forced by both power creep and player preferences.
NOW beyond that explanation, the acquisition of these funds falls into question. Various schemes, mercenary work, market manipulations, Bots, ToS violations (dupes), micro-transactions and RMT purchases all have been utilized for these economic gains which motive originates from the availability to purchase progress of various variety.

As of late, SE has taken a progressive step with the development of the NPC Zurim and how he vendors his wares. The Unity NM system at the beginnings of modern ilvl 119 era was implemented effectively to curtail plundering tactics of embedded merc transactions. Dyn{D} although problematic with it's direct alliance-wide treasure pool system and complications due to the dupe scandal and cross-service of crafting skills has a small degree of improvement in the area of a 18 player alliance having enough room for the inclusion of additional job selections without increasing the challenge of defeating enemies.

In the state that FFXI exists today, I offer this advice. Buyer Beware! The value of what is sold to you is based on how incompetent the merc perceives you to be and how much gil they believe they can extract from you. Merc prices reflect the above mentioned scandalous behaviors and they are looking to sell their services to the players who place the least value on the gil they have.
Form statics, linkshells and social connections with people that have comparable schedules. Lift all players in your group to meet the requirements of modern FFXI and the newest challenges. If you feed wild animals, they will associate you as a food source. Merc utilizes this same precedent, those that feed that demand perpetuate that behavior.

[Spaitin]

UNM is merced pretty easily. you just sell kills. It didnt do anything to stop mercing.

[TullemoreAsuraFFXI]

True, but not even a fool would exchange vast sums of gil for that service. The fights are typically alot more available to the inclusiveness of job types with 18 player alliances being allowed. Thus limiting the perception of marketing the UCNM as a consistent source of sales for a merc.

[Spaitin]

If the content becomes hard, then yes they would. When UNM was new you could charge pretty good amounts for a kill. Even still 200-300k a kill on the 135 UNM is pretty common. Most mercing is pretty small amounts of gil tbh. dynamis D wave three mercing is expensive and so is aeonic clear. BUt the rest are pretty darn cheap. Any content that has a requirement to get kill/clear credit or drops will easily be merced. Your solutions really just make mercing look slightly different.

[TullemoreAsuraFFXI]

guess you overlooked the part about removing the ability to place gil into a trading box?

[Spaitin]

Then they just use real money in paypal via discord. still will be merced. Also, SE will NEVER do that. to even suggest it is silly. If you want a different commerce system i suggest finding a different game. They dont have NEAR the manpower to do that, and they dont really care about mercs.

[Sirmarki]

Then they just use real money in paypal via discord. still will be merced. Also, SE will NEVER do that. to even suggest it is silly. If you want a different commerce system i suggest finding a different game. They dont have NEAR the manpower to do that, and they dont really care about mercs.

other people like it. Quite a few apparently.

So just make absolutely everything sellable from NPC's, right? Because whats the difference? If people like buying weapons/gear and not fighting, make it more user friendly, right?