Ideas for Limbus mk2

[Alhanelem]

I believe the idea/lore of HTBF is that they are tests based on past battles, that Odin? creates for you.

These are literally just level appropriate versions of the existing fights, the only thing that makes them test is doing them on the higher difficulty settings which does make it harder than the original fights were. But it's nothing like, say, the Extreme fights in FFXIV which dramatically change the boss mechanics.

I really don't understand why you're going around trying to find lore based excuses for everything. Some things just don't need an explanation. Even if we needed the explanation, well, there's nothing to imply or suggest Odin is the lore reason for the whims of the developers in this specific case.

[Chromium]

The test is based on the player skill and the gear and is not static, if you're a casual player in lower tier gear then E is a test to you.

If you think otherwise you don't understand anything about the game.

What you said is like saying the only real test in boxing is fighting the world champion heavyweight boxing champion.

[Chromium]

I really don't understand why you're going around trying to find lore based excuses for everything. Some things just don't need an explanation. Even if we needed the explanation, well, there's nothing to imply or suggest Odin is the lore reason for the whims of the developers in this specific case.

Because the developers put the effort to do so (they even created lore for Ambuscade to exist when they didn't have to at all), because it's a Final Fantasy game and lore matters greatly (not just on 11 but a shared mythology to them all) and because it makes the game more enjoyable to do so for those who have a more immersive / romantic view of things. It elevates it above being purely just a play and drop game.

If you simply see a game as a piece of code, that performs a task and little more that is fine for you. Don't try to force others to see things how you do.

I love the deep lore of the game, I love the huge effort and passion the original writers / lore creators and developers put into the game and that's part of why I still play and enjoy the game so much 23 years later.

[Alhanelem]

The test is based on the player skill and the gear and is not static, if you're a casual player in lower tier gear then E is a test to you.

The normal fight is designed around people having gear readily obtainable within a certain time of reaching level 99 and having at least the ilvl gear obtained from sparks if not other content. It is not really more of a "test" than the original fight was when it was relevant. As I said, aside from having multiple difficulty levels, these fights are largely unchanged from the originals.

If you think otherwise you don't understand anything about the game.

This is an incredibly silly thing to say. I think otherwise. I know PLENTY about the game. Probably more than you do.

What you said is like saying the only real test in boxing is fighting the world champion heavyweight boxing champion.

Uh, no, it's not like saying that at all.

The HTMBFs are not designed to be extremely challenging fights. You have the option to make them harder, yes, but even then, most of these fights don't have any super fancy mechanics like what came later in the game. You want to be tested? That's what high veng Odyssey fights, Sortie bosses and master trials are for (among other things).

If you simply see a game as a piece of code, that performs a task and little more that is fine for you. Don't try to force others to see things how you do.

That's not how I see it and in no way am I suggesting the lore doesn't have value. But in many of these threads you're reading way way way too deep between the lines trying to figure out things that the developers/writers probably didn't even account for. Some things in the game exist purely to serve a function and not to advance the story or lore in some way. The way you're acting here is like a conspiracy theorist, trying to uncover things that may not actually exist just because you're convinced that they do.

Lore is important and XI has a lot of it. But it really seems like you think the developers are playing 5D chess or something when I really don't believe that they went THAT deep.

Female galka don't exist. They never existed, and there is no sensical way to take some lore tidbit and convince oneself that they do or did exist at one point. By the same token, just because they used the mannequin skin on these NPCs doesn't mean it has anything to do with actual cursed mannequins or whatever. You're theory crafting at best, and inventing things at worst. You constantly make wild extrapolations that have little to no basis in any written or clearly implied lore in the game.

So take your own advice and stop trying to convince people of your wild theories.

Everyone who bothers posting here has some kind of passion for the game and that includes me, having been here since nearly the beginning just as you have. What frustrates me is your use of lore tidbits to validate asking for things that the game was never designed to have, based on some next level deep lore extrapolation. The female galka thread especially frustrated me, being a Galka player and having thoroughly enjoyed the Voracious Resurgence's exploration of the race and its history and origin story. Seeing someone cherry pick bits and pieces of this to say there are or should be female Galka is upsetting to me because the race's uniqueness is the whole reason I chose it from the beginning. And there's been more than one thread demanding a female version over the years, which I absolutely do not want to see because it would destroy a core aspect of what makes the race special.

[Zenion]

Nothing's canon unless I agree with it, stop having fun pretending the game has a story outside the officially sanctioned storylines!

Sorry, I forgot that the official forums are only for complaining about things we don't like. My bad. Guess I'll see you all next Vana'bout.

[Alhanelem]

Sorry, I forgot that the official forums are only for complaining about things we don't like. My bad. Guess I'll see you all next Vana'bout.

Stop making false quotes, thanks. I never said anything about coming up with your own stories, but anything you come up with yourself is definitely not canon by simple definition.

That said, nothing's canon unless SE agrees with it, not me. I never said you couldn't invent stories, but you can't claim that your ideas are canon.

[Chromium]

It's not inventing stories, as it's not specifically stated as cannon unless it can be proven as so.

Stating what you think something is isn't the same as stating it as cannon.

For instance the dawn maidens are not specifically stated to be the avatars anywhere (I don't think), but it's seems pretty obvious they are.

It's also not widely known that the 5 races are actually what is left of the Zilart race (outside of Sea), that however is actually cannon and is stated as such in a cut-scene few people remember.

XI likes to be very vague with its lore, and I believe part of the reason they did it that way is becasue they want people to figure these things out. The way you figure things out, is by thinking about it and talking about it.

[Alhanelem]

Stating what you think something is isn't the same as stating it as cannon.

But that's basically what you've been doing...

There's nothing wrong with exploring the game's lore at all and trying to things out. But you routinely read so far in between the lines that your analyses read more like a conspiracy theory. Not everything is more complex than it was written to be. Some things may be, but some things may not be.

You reached, really, really far out there to try to invent female Galka. I don't mind lore discussion at all, but in this case, in my opinion, you were seeing things that weren't there. I also think you're reading too far into it on the NPCs with the mannequin model. I think it was just a cheap way to make sure these NPCs didn't look like regular tarus and galkas etc. FFXI is notorious for reusing assets to save space and design costs, so not every decision made about the look of a place, NPC, or object is necessarily rooted in lore.

It's also not widely known that the 5 races are actually what is left of the Zilart race (outside of Sea),

I don't think you're giving the average player enough credit here. It's no big secret what connection the enlightened races have to the Zliart. Sea especially makes it plain and obvious, and as you said, it's even covered by the game in story. So it's not exactly a secret that needs revealing.

[Chromium]

Give bonuses for players who group up for the NM system (if it's free for all like Domain Invasion)

The game needs to encourage players to group up, JP players especially are shy about grouping up and giving bonuses similar to in Ambuscade would be a very good reason for them to group and break the ice.

Should also do this in Besieged too.

[Alhanelem]

Actually the game has been gradually shifting to be more solo friendly. I'm all for grouping for content that logically needs it, but most open world spawning NMs are old hat these days. The unity system made force-poppable versions of a huge number of the old school NMs, and grouping for them is beneficial.

Not sure what this has to do with limbus though.