DoL/DoH materia from airships...

[alimdia]

The nerf happened in 3.2, if you want to get a "healthy" amount of DoH materia you have to sacrifice speed and range for surveillance and retrieval. I personally had to invest a few millions on replacing three airships with Viltgance Forecastle, Odyssey Aftcastle, Invincible Hull and Bronco Rigging, after I did this change I started getting a decent number of DoH IVs again, of course you're still subject to RNG so there are times you won't get much or anything at all, but most of the time the yield is what it used to be with an "average" airship.

Before the change all I used to get was branches, maybe 3-4 materia, after the change this sighting became more common:






The downside to this setup is that it takes over 3 days per voyage, and as I mentioned you're still subject to RNG, which sometimes will give little



Or nothing at all

[PROBOUND]

snip

I appreciate your positive outlook on the current state of airships, however this build isn't new. Many players like myself have been using this build since 3.2 (on all my ships). I can confirm after 3.3 and much testing (guareteed my sample size is larger than yours) this very same build became useless overnight. Going from getting upwards of 40+ materia per voyage (Sectors 13 -> 17) to never seeing more than 10-15 materia unless an S or SS rating was present. Now this Vilt/Odyssey build is bringing back on average the same yields as a low end Bronco/Invicible build. Essentially rendering part customization pointless when so many layers of RNG are now present. A maxed out airship with the newest most cutting edge parts should have a noticable advantage over a low level airship but sadly thats no longer the case.

Airship builds/customization are a big problem now but they aren't the real issue. SE made back end adjustments to not only the loot tables but also the materia yields, extraction levels and weather conditions. Its still possible to obtain materia, however your haul is now more dependent on voyage ratings (S or SS RNG) than the actual parts your using.
TLDR: The stars need to align with your best in slot build in order to get the most out of it.

No Wind / Low Turbulence (considered to be the best weather condition) coupled with a top tier Forecastle (surveillance) used guarentee 2 surveillance levels as well as Optimal extraction/retrieval levels in 3.2. This is no longer the case. No Wind can now result in Low/Poor extraction levels and no longer guarentees a second chance at items.

Weather RNG, Loot Table RNG, Extraction level RNG, Less Yield. The 3.3 Airship meta.

[Mayoyama]

The point was that with the number of IVs I was getting with airships, I could more easily help new players getting into level 60 crafting by helping them meld some gear so that they can do their red scrips a little easier. Yes there are other options now but some people dont get a lot of time to play but still want to enjoy some higher level crafting so airships allowed me to better help them out...

I mean, isnt that the point of FCs? to be ABLE to assist members?

IVs in crafting are basically the norm now (as were IIIs back at 50) and on my server they are stupidly expensive. I had assumed one of the reasons they added IVs to airships in the first place was to boost their supply and lower costs (thus improving accessibility to higher end crafting for newer/less experienced crafters).

I'm not asking for an increase to Vs from airships (they should be kept rare), only for IVs to help people catch up

EDIT: I too have seen a dramatic drop in airship effectiveness (hence why I made this post)

It's like if we say that the Zu token and music roll nerf ship because they become available

Err.. this doesnt even make sense? How does adding a rare item nerf ships? If anything it is a boon... adding silver ore and useless branches just to muddy the waters of the loot tables just to make it even less likely to get materia was not a great move, with all due respect

[Roth_Trailfinder]

Adding new items to sectors, regardless of rarity, serves to dilute the pool. Zu mount, silver ore, it's all the same : another missed opportunity for some T4 Materia.

[Singularity]

The zu mount is only found in sector 24 though. Crafting materia comes from sectors 3, 7, 13 and 17 (tier IV only from the latter two). Changes to the loot table of other sectors will have no effect on crafting materia yields.

[PROBOUND]

At this point, Its likely that silver ore in sectors 13/17 is an error in item naming on the devs part. This is the only explanation for such a low lvl gathering item to be included in these high level airship sectors.

Devs please correct the following item naming error:

Sector 13 and 17: Silver Ore -> Hardsilver Ore.

While still a disspointing nerf to the loot tables, I think we can all agree that this was the originally intended material for these sectors.