[dev1007] Voidwatch: Obtaining Spoils

[MarkovChain]

You are failing to show superior belts so yeah credibility zero. VW fanboy.

[Raksha]

There are 0 active 18 man shells from Garuda still going. I can name a handful of 18-man shells on my server, and I wouldn't consider doing anything with most of them because they're either >50% incompetent or have ridiculous rules. I don't think it's just me who let the shells fall apart.

Which of those categories does my LS fall into?

[Byrth]

I honestly don't remember what shell you're in. I think it's the first shell whose name I can't remember.
* The shell that I did Einherjar with once has a few people I like, a few people I don't know, and a few people who think they're much better at the game than they are (which is normal). I haven't thoroughly investigated their rules, but I seem to remember it being much much more in to wealth redistribution and mandatory events than I'm game for. If you take a linkshell to do KS99 Wyrm, for instance, it should still be Your Pop Your Drop. Pop item included and sellable, and nothing obligatory linkshell property. If you go to kill Fafnirs, your linkshell members should be able to sell Honey Wines that drop off their pops, etc.
* SND has shown themselves to be a big pile of fail in pretty much every one of my interactions with them. I think I was on the server for less than a day before they stole an Ix'Drk from me with a party (I sac pulled to a tower to depop the adds) and ended up wiping to it (because they re-linked the adds and couldn't figure out how to handle it). Reclaimed, got a stupid deed, and they just cost me half an hour and some annoyance. Way to set the tone, guys.
* Blueprint is just starting up. I haven't done anything with them yet but recognize some faces from Duvetecca.
* Div is still okay. That's the only Garuda shell that's "still going" but I'm pretty sure it stopped being an event shell and dropped to social status for quite a while. They're also mostly JP, though they had some dedicated "wwww" NAs for a while. I'm not sure if Pyo is expanding it again or what. I've heard only good things about him, but some of his linkshell members always rubbed me the wrong way.
* I'm not sure what happened to Stellvia. I assume they disappeared or merged with Div or something.
* With Shumo's troubles and various other key members disappearing, TheTroupes faded off about two months ago.

Of the linkshells above, only the top two have enough members to do Voidwatch without inviting out-of-LS members. The next two can get Voidwatch done without shouting, but they typically invite random non-members. I'm personally in a nebulous group below the bottom of the list that's basically a collection of a few NAs from Garuda who get together irregularly to do Voidwatch and end up shouting to fill the last 8 slots. I have Ashen/White top tier Abyssites and all the periapts, but it isn't like I can reasonably expect to ever get a Voidwatch body. In fact, I can make a pretty safe bet that I'll get a level 95 Empyrean and Mythic before I get a voidwatch drop that I give a shit about.

To be frank, I haven't found an 18 man linkshell that suits my tastes in years. The average player is so bad and player commitment is so low that leaders sacrifice player quality for the equally-important stat of attendance. This has always been the case, but it's even worse now that there are fewer people in endgame to choose from. Before the server merge, I had listed out the endgame NA players that I approved of and it basically added up to one alliance worth. Many of them have quit since then.

[Mahoro]

Raksha and I are in Anduril, Byrth. I personally help make the rules as sack so I think they are extremely fair. (KS99s are your pop, your drop as you wrote you preferred. Members can call HQ King pops that drop off their NQ Kings.)

As for your other category, if I go into specifics, Raksha will tattle on me to the members, so let's just say...um... there are a few incompetents in every large FFXI group, but our ratio there is low and when we organize the allies we never put them in positions of large responsibility :P

[Raksha]

I honestly don't remember what shell you're in. I think it's the first shell whose name I can't remember.
* The shell that I did Einherjar with once has a few people I like, a few people I don't know, and a few people who think they're much better at the game than they are (which is normal). I haven't thoroughly investigated their rules, but I seem to remember it being much much more in to wealth redistribution and mandatory events than I'm game for. If you take a linkshell to do KS99 Wyrm, for instance, it should still be Your Pop Your Drop. Pop item included and sellable, and nothing obligatory linkshell property. If you go to kill Fafnirs, your linkshell members should be able to sell Honey Wines that drop off their pops, etc.

Yeah that's probably my shell that you're thinking of. I have my qualms with them about some of those things but all in all I feel it's a pretty fair trade. Most of the events are focused around getting clears and helping people who cant 2box everything get the stuff they need, but there is big ticket stuff too for the "hardcore" guys. Sucks that you don't think you'd fit in, I'd love to have you in our shell.

[Mahoro]

Rajas earring, eh? An oversight on my part makes me a Dynamis newb (when I've been leading Dynamis for 5 years), so I guess that oversight makes you a whole game newb. Belt still isn't better than some of the stuff that drops from VW.

I've been complaining about the quality of drops in Dynamis forever now. The fact that you're claiming Dynamis has a better loot system than... anything... makes me laugh. You do the higher tier Dynamis battles? The work/reward ratio is even worse than VW.

I'm not sure where this comes from. Pop items in Dynamis fall like rain from the higher level mobs. When our LS does Neo-Dynamis, we pop a few of each NM so we collect 3+ Arch Boss sets. Firstly, the NM's drop Oneiros/Mujin items quite frequently, which are great AH fodder and fills LS bank coffers quickly considering most of them go for 1,000,000+. As for the main event, Arch Bosses very rarely drop nothing, and most will drop at least one item. We've seen quite a few FULL drop Arch Bosses. The work/reward ratio is certainly more predictable than VW....

[Byrth]

Eh, I guess another major issue I have is that joining a large shell of strangers with frequent mandatory events would prevent me from doing things with my nebulous collection of friends. It's not so much that I dislike you guys as that I don't know you. My social has 3~4 people on every night, and we can go do things. Sometimes one of us finds out about an alliance event going down, and we go do things in an alliance. Often it's just me dualboxing dynamis and doing Dancer testing.

[Mahoro]

Yeah that's probably my shell that you're thinking of. I have my qualms with them about some of those things but all in all I feel it's a pretty fair trade. Most of the events are focused around getting clears and helping people who cant 2box everything get the stuff they need, but there is big ticket stuff too for the "hardcore" guys. Sucks that you don't think you'd fit in, I'd love to have you in our shell.

/poke Raksha. All our private pop stuff is "your pop, your choice of 1 drop (or 1 type of item if multiples drop like AF3 trinkets)." And in KS99, it's "your pop, you keep entire loot pool." Dunno how we could be fairer while still allowing some stuff to fall to the rest of the LS!

[Mahoro]

Eh, I guess another major issue I have is that joining a large shell of strangers with frequent mandatory events would prevent me from doing things with my nebulous collection of friends. It's not so much that I dislike you guys as that I don't know you. My social has 3~4 people on every night, and we can go do things. Sometimes one of us finds out about an alliance event going down, and we go do things in an alliance. Often it's just me dualboxing dynamis and doing Dancer testing.

That's too bad ;; I like many of your posts on BG and here and you'd probably be a good fit for us if you ever change yer mind!

[Byrth]

Honestly, for things like Fafnir it should really be "if you want it and you popped it, it's yours." Same deal for Nidhogg.

There's no reason to force people to share drops from low mannable monsters that you choose to do with a linkshell. The story always ends with a small number of people who farm pops in the linkshell and a large number of people who leech.

Thanks for thinking I'd be a good fit though guys. I'm honored. I just don't really feel like regularly dealing with an alliance worth of people anymore though. hermit@<3