Can we get an idea on what to expect from the open world in version 2? (A bit long)

[DarthTaru]

Actually Ruetlor. While I would normally agree with you that some of the things that I have listed should be obvious and easily completed, my experience within video games has taught me never to assume such for the sake of the content itself will be at risk if you do not mention it.

I'd also like to assert, as a manner of opinion, that a lot of what we have in the game meets some of those issues, but does not contain it's balancing factors, and therefore, the virtue is not seen as a benefit, or is simply overlooked due to not being substantial enough.



Funny how eight years ago a linkshell used that exact same excuse while using a third party program they ultimately sold to RMT companies for grand after years of 'being better at claiming'.

Given the history of Ground Kings, there's absolutely no way I'll respect such a claim like the one you just made, and saying as much makes you suspect, in my eyes.

'The claim for fame' system is toxic and heavily encourages bots, grief tactics, etc. The Rare EX or our U/U system only works now when the item had plentiful alternatives, and never worked for HNMs that had a monopoly on certain bests in slot. If the system really worked, Ground Kings wouldn't be force pop today.

I am already predicting a backlash for the manner Avatars will be claimed for Free Company use, we don't need to add more fuel to that fire. However, if they're inteligent and make HNM drops side-grades to other items obtained through different means (So that there is a selection of items to obtain rather than a single best in slot.) Then it's possible to keep a system like Sandworm or other, roaming HNM systems in place. However at the very least stationary ones should have a measure of abuse control applied.

I just don't have the same hysteria over bots that other people do. My HNM linkshell didn't use bots in XI and we did fine. We lost a lot of Dragon's Aery claims but got the majority of Tiamat and Cerb for at least a year stretch. Honestly, I just think a lot (not all) of the people with an over the top bot phobia just really sucked at claiming. Actually, I suspect they just sucked at killing.

I think back to my days spent in XI and remember most of the most vocal players on this issue were people from linkshells who never even went to HNM camps and wouldn't have been able to kill them if they had. It wasn't that all of them were horrible. They were just unmotivated and since an HNM claim wouldn't fall into their laps wrapped in a bow they only wanted to blame bots. This is my personal experience so when I see all of these people here with what I think are irrational claims about bots I am forced to draw the same conclusions.

The honest truth of the matter is I would rather have to suffer and work against bots than play in an instanced WoW clone. My linkshell is very capable. We have very capable players. We're also small, some of us have conflicting play times, sometimes we find ourselves stuck at 7/8 until very late at night, sometimes we've had to fight Ifrit Extreme with mules in party until an 8th arrives, and a signification portion of our LS list will be inactive until 2.0. We're also on Aegis.

There are Japanese linkshells on Aegis with great skill and they also have seemingly ten times our numbers without, it seems, any great sacrifice in the over all quality of their LS. Were 2.0 to launch tomorrow with all the open world content I want to see, my linkshell and the 2 or 3 other capable NA endgame linkshells (with similar size and structure as our own) would get absolutely steamrolled on claim. That doesn't matter to me. That's a challenge and a struggle i'm willing to brave and ultimately overcome because that is the game I want to play. If we're overwhelmed at first by these emerging JP juggernauts I won't be coming to the forums to whine and cry about the open world system. We'll simply scrap for what we can get, grow our LS, and make sure we get our slice of the pie.

We'll rise to whatever occasion we have to. We overcome the game. We don't let the game overcome us. That's why we want open world. Myself and everyone else in this thread. That and a thousand other reasons.

I would rather have to fight for every crumb in an open world MMO than rule with world first and server first instances any day every day.
It's boring. It gets stale. It's a game on tracks.
That's a single player game. It doesn't matter how fun Mass Effect is. I can't play Mass Effect and experience the SAME EXACT THING fifty billion times and enjoy it. That's what an instance is.

Not for me.

I want to watch people wipe and be ready to claim. I want to have to claim under less than ideal conditions. I want my LS to fight its ass off to make sure we don't wipe in front of someone else. I want to overcome through the skill and strength of my LS the most trying MPK attempts while we're on the brink of failure and win despite it.

That's an MMO.

Addressing the bot issue is IMO addressed through addressing the pop system.
Give future Tiamats enough spawn locations way off the beaten path that an entire linkshell can not sit waiting for them with a kill alliance in one place and a bot at the ready. Or make every mob in the game, from a boar in some remote corner of the world to a marmot squirrel 2 feet outside Uldah's gate, a potential place holder for an HNM.

Make the claim reliant on who can find them and who can muster an alliance the fastest.

There are plenty of solutions short of throwing the baby out with the bath water.