Atma Reformation Suggestions

[Yhximott]

Salutations,

Now I know I'm not the only person who finds the Atma grind to be a detriment to this game's user friendliness, and may result in the loss of players in very extreme cases. At the very least people who don't mind it agree that it could be better. Last I checked, this game took EVERYTHING about WOW that people hate, and didn't include it.

The truth of RNG is that you could achieve them all in an hour, or you could spend 10 years trying and never get a single one. Both are very unlikely, but still possible. That aside, there are some strong opinions in both directions (for and against the current system) which is causing an unfriendly atmosphere to rise in the game and on the forums regarding the matter. I think factors like these warrant the consideration of a reformation to the Atma quest.

I have seen promising suggestions for the reformation of the process, but no one has yet consolidated them into one thread for discussion:

In case of TL/DR, I'll post my favorite solution first:
Jalzahn gives you an item that captures the Aetherial energy produced by the throes of monsters you defeat at a random rate of at least 1% (up to 100% granting an instant Atma) per completed fate, producing an Atma upon reaching 100%. It would reset to 0% upon completion of a fate in a different area. This would still leave the grind up to RNG, but would limit the number of fates any player would have to do to 100. It would also require that the person is within the perimeter of the fate at it's end, putting a stop to the on-hit-quit technique users.


Another suggestion includes Jalzahn presenting the fruits of Atma research by giving the player an Aether reading device, which would tell you how likely you are to receive an Atma upon completion of particular fates, akin to using special items to weaken or capture quest specific monsters.


One is that Atma's should have specific FATE's that drop them for everyone involved:
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...ould-have-been.
For this system, I think the drops for these should be akin to the B-rank hunts. One person can obtain one alone and the bosses should spawn rather frequently, so as to avoid animosity between players. Jalzahn could tell you the name of a fabled monster (given at random), and you would then have to find and defeat that specific monster in your current Job and bring him the Atma in order to progress to the next one.

Another suggestion is that Atma's could be bought/sold/traded:
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...er-atma-thread...
I personally don't approve of this suggestion, but I want everyone's opinion to be heard. I think making it into a tradable item would encourage RMT, unless the seller was required to obtain an in-game sanction of some sort in order to gain access to the selling of untradable items, which could still be circumvented.
A similar suggestion would be that you might be able to get them from a Mor Dhona trader by giving up rare drops like other highly coveted items, but I think that would diminish the personal satisfaction of cultivating your Relic on your own.

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If anyone has opinions or suggestions of their own that aren't already listed, I strongly encourage you to share. Any solution is preferable to the prospect of spending a potentially unlimited amount of time grinding with no success. And in the future, never leaving the progress of individual gamers entirely up to RNG with no statute of limitations is probably a good idea.

[Sarynth]

Here you go, with all the atma threads floating around some consolidation is nice. Another idea I had following the addition of hunts is to add a notorious monster for each atma that spawns within a small area that has the respawn time of 10-15 min, but is on par with an A rank in terms of hp/strength.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...8atma-stage%29

Btw you can edit your post to bypass 1k character limit ^_^

[Yhximott]

I agree actually. Such a monster should have a dominating aetheric presence and require cooperation, but rewards being granted only to those with proper prereq's will mitigate mobbing.

Thanks for the lesson on posting~

[Kytrin]

I had the idea a while back to allow a person to potentially get an ATMA regardless of class/level as long as they had at least one Zenith weapon in their armory chest. That would allow you to work towards an ATMA at any time no matter what class you are. Admittedly, it would be of best benefit for those who still have alternate classes/jobs to level though.

I also had the suggestion for allowing one set of crystals to count more than once, but that's more for working towards additional ATMA than the initial grind.

Your suggestion with building up Aether is pretty good too. Though I'm not sure if I like the limitation of it resetting if you run a FATE in another zone. Too much potential for screwing yourself over if you accidentally get involved in another FATE somewhere. Especially if you have bad luck and only get 1% the whole time. That's a lot of effort gone to waste.

[Yhximott]

The idea is that the item wouldn't be able to harbor the energy of more than one type of Atma. Mixing Aether from two different areas would produce an impure/mixed crystal. I don't want to nerf the quest. I feel like it should still be fairly tedious, just not potentially impossible.

[Kytrin]

The idea is that the item wouldn't be able to harbor the energy of more than one type of Atma. Mixing Aether from two different areas would produce an impure/mixed crystal. I don't want to nerf the quest. I feel like it should still be fairly tedious, just not potentially impossible.

They don't have it set at impossible now. They have it set at "I would rather drill another hole in my head than endure this torture another minute." currently. The worst stats I've seen for this section of the quest is up to 80 some odd hours. Granted, that's the equivalent of working full-time for two weeks (which is stupid, and stupidly painful, by itself) but it's not impossible. Whether someone wants to waste that much time messing with it is another story altogether.

[Yhximott]

Potentially is the key word. It's not strictly impossible, but statistically speaking with RNG the possibility exists that you will never obtain an Atma in the entire time you play this game.

Granted, that is as exceedingly unlikely as receiving all 12 on your first 12 attempts. As well, it is beside the point.

[Llyren]

I would not change the percentage drop chance of the atma's during the quest, but simply have a fate counter on the quest menu that when it ticks to 100 for that zone grants an atma in addition to the normal random chance. I think for most players this would not speed up the grind, for a few unlucky it would, and for most of us would simply give us numbers to look at.

I certainly would not object to the atma's dropping from fates forever as long as you had a class at that part of the relic questline, no matter the weapon equipped.

[ZodMel]

Oh great another "Atma farming/RNG is unfair" thread. God people, just go to Syrcus Tower, get a UAT, (not hard now since 2 are guaranteed to drop now), then next week, get a sand off of Xande, and boom, 110 weapon.

[wesley69]

i cant play FF everyday for 12 hours trying to get a stupid atma drop.
this needs to be set up so casual users can get theirs .
i get so pissed off at this questline ,i want to quit and go back to everquest