Seriously? No mail box?

[Malakym]

@Rydin
Neither I nor anybody I know has used the word 'hooptie' in ages, I'm pretty sure by now it's been released into the public domain regardless of whether you're the 'requisite race'. Anyway!

Your point that they both could be telling the truth makes sense but still does not cast tanaka's crew in a good light - if he really was planning to roll out the mail system that early even with yoshi saying how difficult it would be, that leads me to two conclusions:
tanaka's implementation of the system would be...less than ideal, to be diplomatic OR
tanaka's crew are secretly programming geniuses on a level above yoshi that were waiting until that specific time to reveal it to us.

@darkstarpoet1
Are you of the opinion that it's getting worse then? Not trying to troll, I'm genuinely interested to find out why someone would think the game at this point is anything but better than it was before.

[stealth formatting]

[Rydin]

@Rydin
Neither I nor anybody I know has used the word 'hooptie' in ages, I'm pretty sure by now it's been released into the public domain regardless of whether you're the 'requisite race'. Anyway!

Your point that they both could be telling the truth makes sense but still does not cast tanaka's crew in a good light - if he really was planning to roll out the mail system that early even with yoshi saying how difficult it would be, that leads me to two conclusions:
tanaka's implementation of the system would be...less than ideal, to be diplomatic OR
tanaka's crew are secretly programming geniuses on a level above yoshi that were waiting until that specific time to reveal it to us.

@darkstarpoet1
Are you of the opinion that it's getting worse then? Not trying to troll, I'm genuinely interested to find out why someone would think the game at this point is anything but better than it was before.

[stealth formatting]

I was gonna say "Beater" but decided against it

edit: you can still say hooptie though... its an homage to the golden age

[darkstarpoet1]

@darkstarpoet1
Are you of the opinion that it's getting worse then? Not trying to troll, I'm genuinely interested to find out why someone would think the game at this point is anything but better than it was before.

[stealth formatting]

since you asked i'll give an honest opinion. the game has taken steps forwards and backwards since the change in the leadership within the development staff. remember these are my opinions and i am not stating any as fact.

the things that have improved
- server stability. it has a long way to go before i will call it stable, but it is much better than it was at release.
- crafting changes. the addition of recipes inside the menu so you can go directly to them instead of manually picking each item.
- personal combos for dd's. i love the way the combo's are done with the damage dealing classes
- grand companies. although these are very similar to the leve counter i do like the fact you actually get recognition for advancing within them and the storylines are good.
- materia system. the ideas behind the materia system is nice in theory, but execution needs more work.

things i feel have went backwards.
- armory system. this was one of the major things i loved about the original game and it is being phased out one part at a time.
- crafting system. to me the crafting system was the most involved system i've seen. i enjoyed it and it is also one of the reasons i got this game. it's been constantly getting easier and has lost most of its appeal. the new hq changes put in a few patches ago has made it to where i could care less to craft anything for anyone anymore. nothing in the game that involves crafting even comes close to when you made your first +3 vintage robe or haubby. now if i get a +1 it's like ah yay another of those worthless things.
- gear drops. the premade gear being dropped from the mobs to me are one of the biggest contributing factors to economy being in the pathetic shape its in.
- notorious monsters. the original notorious monsters were the most fun aspects this game had to offer. between the fighting for the drops, making the gear, selling the items, and just having fun groups together i wish they hadn't went away from those.
- incap system. the original incap system i thought was a fantastic thing to have in game and wish it was expanded on instead of being put to the side to never be heard from again. watching the buffalo horn be broken and knowing that gave the chance for the bardiche head or the lance head were great feelings.
- leveling. the speed in which people level now is beyond crazy. when we first started it took a while to hit that first 50. there's people that started just this past november and have had all of their battle classes to cap for over a month. yoshi stated he wanted it to take around 120 hours to cap a class. this can actually be accomplished in around 36 hours now.
- moving to instanced. i much prefer open world competition to instanced. i enjoy the camping and competing for claims on a mob.
- personal combo's for mages. doing fire followed by fire followed by ...what was it again...oh yeah fire is not my idea of thinking and coming up with a nice combo system for mages. it feels lazy and half done to me. they removed all the tp moves mages could use besides second wind and even went as far as removing flashfreeze and levinbolt. those would have been a perfect item to use as part of the combo.
- grand companies. yoshi states he wants to move away from the leves being so overused and then turns around and adds what for grand companies? grand company leves. also instead of doing quests to rank up in the company you pay seals for it. what kind of achievement or promotion is it when you say for the right amount of money you can have this?
- materia system. this has good ideas, but the basing everything involved in it of luck is not end game for crafters as he claims. it's nothing more than a lucky roll of the dice.
- stat changes. the base stats are too high so regardless if you are fighting naked or fully geared you only have minimal effects.
- primal drops. i don't think there's much to say here besides i've dropped 10 ifrit blades while my ls's full time tank hasn't even had his first, but i can't even pass it to him.
- partial fixes. removing key aspects of the game to only have them sit half fixed for over 6-9 is not good imo. if the fix isn't ready for something don't remove it until you are actually ready to fix it(battle regimens and recipe changes among other things)

to me i had more fun in the leve parties of old and doing nm parties much more than i have anything post 1.18. yes, i loved the ifrit fight and it was fun to run. the problem is with the way the loot was done for it and after beating it over 400 times and still haven't gotten all the weapons i have become sick of it. this is a mmo, but so much of this game has became solo centric because there has not been anything to keep groups going and meeting new people. the only time people want to party anymore is to beg you to power level them and then get mad if you say you can't do it for them.

if it weren't for the friends i have made and become close to for well over a year i can honestly say i would have been long gone from the game. i keep giving the game time because it is a numbered final fantasy title so i feel eventually it will become a game i once again enjoy.

[Rowyne]

since you asked i'll give an honest opinion. the game has taken steps forwards and backwards since the change in the leadership within the development staff. remember these are my opinions and i am not stating any as fact.

[Snip]

- partial fixes. removing key aspects of the game to only have them sit half fixed for over 6-9 is not good imo. if the fix isn't ready for something don't remove it until you are actually ready to fix it(battle regimens and recipe changes among other things)

to me i had more fun in the leve parties of old and doing nm parties much more than i have anything post 1.18. yes, i loved the ifrit fight and it was fun to run. the problem is with the way the loot was done for it and after beating it over 400 times and still haven't gotten all the weapons i have become sick of it. this is a mmo, but so much of this game has became solo centric because there has not been anything to keep groups going and meeting new people. the only time people want to party anymore is to beg you to power level them and then get mad if you say you can't do it for them.

Very good post, Darkstar.

I think you ended it on what I feel is one of the biggest things that currently plagues the game. Things are dismantled before replacements are ready, which causes a whole new set of problems.

One example is guildleves. Now, I'm not questioning the decision to reposition leves as solo content. I think whoever came up with the idea to make a game that centered almost exclusively around repeatable quests needs to seriously reevaluate their idea of fun. However, what leves did bring to the table was a way for parties of different sizes and skillsets to come together, focus on a goal, and reward players based on their contribution. Yes, it had its flaws (the original 36 hour timer, rewarding players for failing leves, unbalanced leves with the best ones being in Ul'dah so everyone flocked there and abandoned Gridania and LL). But in the early days of the game, some of the best fun I had was leve nights with my LS. People didn't stand around in town shouting for exp parties, they went to the camps. "You doing leves?" "Sure, want to join us?" The leve linking system was an incentive to grab more people. We recruited several new people into our LS that we met in the camps doing leves.

Again, I agree with Yoshi-P's stance on getting away from a repetitive grind-centric game and giving players leveling options. However, the problem is that when leves were restructured, there was nothing put in their place. The options he spoke of weren't there. The Grand Companies are finally taking shape, and we're about to have a total of four instanced dungeons. But that's still not what I would consider to be central leveling content. Where are the meat and potatoes quests? Where are the real dungeon crawls? Now, people go out and form power leveling parties because we've gotten back to the naked grind, which I feel is a huge step backwards.

This method of 'fixing' things only breaks something else.

Like most, I'm hoping 2.0 will fix it for real.