How raids have hurt this game.

[Azurymber]

They are fixing the action bar UI, not only make it nicer. It's not their fault that you're playing with mouse and keyboard and not with controller to see the issue of the current action bar.

it kinda is their fault... given that this is a PC game and not a console game.

[Pulseczar]

it kinda is their fault... given that this is a PC game and not a console game.

It's mainly a console game made specifically for the PS3. It being on the PC is just a perk. Though I do agree that there should be a separate PC UI. Unfortunately they made the mistake of not only releasing the game too early; but also releasing it on the PC first. There is nothing we can do to change on how it was released.

[Holland]

1. Server underpopulation is still expected. Only one (1) patch, the first step of the core battle mechanics has been implemented, this patch included very low content (interesting sidequests and dungeons).
2. Dungeons have actually put a large sum of the population to grind parties and dungeon content.
3. Again, this is to be expected still. The game has not taken off, and is going to take more than two dungeons for high levels to change that.
4. the search system does not "fail" as you like to put it. It is simply not used by the playerbase. The game still does not encourage pick up groups properly, weather they be for grind parties or any other form of content. I agree, the system needs to be enhanced in some way.
5. Only one change was done to transportation on 1.18. and that is the free return every 15 minutes. I dont understand why you point this out, besides maybe for the sake of it, when virtually no changes have been made to transportation at all and when is confirmed chocobos and airships are coming on 1.19.
6. For what I have experienced in my server, there is now incentive to level up and specifically because of the rank 45 dungeon.
7. Make macros for your ability switching. For the whole action bar swap it takes how much? fifteen to twenty seconds using three macros to swap it completely?.

The game is comprised mainly of higher level players that have not quit after all this time. So seeing Toto-rank empty after a while is no surprise. You need to see this was planned towards the future, if this game ever takes off, it will not be the case with new players. Toto-rak will be done continually by lower level players.

this could not be fixed by:
- servers get merged > because this is still not considered to be a P2P worthy game yet. The remaining player base is being used as feedback source for content, mechanics and feature implementation for the PS3 release. While they do care if we are having fun or not, they do not really care of the amount of players in each server as long as the features they implement are being tested.
- population increase (unlikely any time soon) > at least not until PS3 release.
- incentive (such as a special hat or armor if you have all jobs at 50) > The incentive right now is only experience new content, something different that what you guys have been doing for almost a year. besides the shiny gear Dzemael Darkhold has
- level sync > With a large player base this will not be necessary. On ps3 release everyone will be low level, and with armoury system you can always switch back to a low level class and help friends. This was necessary in XI after quite a few years after game release only.
- greatly improved party search features along with world population view > I agree with this completely.


Right now Partying is there and is a thriving business, gathering leves spots has already been confirmed it will be addressed (look up the Dev responses), why you mention it, I would not understand. Leves, Aetheryte camps, behests are now part of the solo community. Aetheryte camps are no longer the gathering spots for the player base as the original team intended, so seeing camps empty is to be expected. The game has shifted, for the better.

This patch only released the first step of battle changes, the high level content introduced (this is not end game content in my view, but there is already another thread created on this, so I will not derail this one ;p) was only introduced to not leave players with nothing to test these changes, while the content progresses (sp?) the story of the game, it is something that is not introduced at all while a game is being developed or on this case re developed. More forms of low level content have already been confirmed, like the rank 11 ~ 17 tutorial dungeon planned. And once again, I agree player search features need to be enhanced greatly, but that, has also been confirmed will undergo changes after the server side issues have been fixed, and of which we have not heard details on the progress of those fixes at all (this also has its own thread)

[JunkPunch]

I personally think dungeons extremely helped the game. They gave max rank, content hungry players something to do, with the r45 masterpiece. And something for new/low rank/needing to get "accomplice" from pug (me) >,< something to lookforward to. Also giving the new player just a glimpse of what's to come.

As far as not being able to solo efficiently, not able to get into parties and behest, all I can say is find a stable linkshell. I'm lucky enough to have an awesome one, with players always doing something. Crafting, grinding, gathering, doing raids ect we have all the bases covered. With out a stable and active linkshell, this game is quite a task.

Anima being used up solely for dungeons, people must be doing it wrong. I always set my return point at Boulder Downs, port to a city if I need to drop of local leves, buy equipment ect, and return once finished, or I'm ready for another raid.

Server merge, or player relocation, I greatly want this option. Many of my to friends are on other servers who are in the same position as you, and have taken a hiatus from playing. Party search is in great need of repair. I have no problems with it. Though I know some player just refuse to use it, or they will check once every hour or so, and that's part of the problem it's self.

I would also love to see a special item for getting all the DOW / DOM to r50. Like a ring that grants +8 to every stat.

[Holland]

Thats the thing, they keep working on it and "fixing" one thing and then breaking other things in the process. and every patch everyone says "oh dont worry, this patch was just the groundwork for a new vision". Would make a lot more sense just to implement one big new vision and then tweak things from there. Because im betting once they take out phys levels and release jobs it will mess up parts of the game again.

The issue is.. these patches (1.18, 1.19, 1.20) are, literally, the ground work for anything and everything that is to be implemented on the game. Remember everything is being re designed from the ground up, battle, crafts and gathering. That they manage to do it properly is another subject, however, you can not say these are not ground work patches.

[Mattei]

2. they have been planning for the future for a year. At this rate by the time the future comes ff17 will be out and no one will be playing this.

I find it very difficult, if not impossible to believe that Yoshi P and his dev team have been planning anything for a year, you know being as how the game came out a shade over 10 months ago and they werent the dev team til several months after release. Its much more like 6 months. It takes 5 years+ to build an mmo, they were handed a shell of a terrible game and asked to fix it. UI lag/user friendliness, bugs, market ward problems, repetitiveness in leveling up, no end game content among others all being dumped on them and they have the disadvantage of already having in place a bunch of things that nobody likes and arent easy or fast to fix. Im not here to say "omg 6 months now this is the best game ever" but give them a break, its come a long way in 6 months.

[Noata]

Well, I think we may have went into speculation mode on more then just the raid, I agree that raiding has hurt other aspects of the game, it makes sense in a logical standpoint. If you can either do, behests leves or grinding, and then you add a new feature raiding. if anyone moves to that new feature there is a lack of people in the other catagoires. at the same time, if a member becomes mor eactive due to this features, the likely hood of them continuing to play the game and grind other classes increases. Each server is different so how people treat the new feature varies. Eventually witht he console release the game will likely have alot more people. So I agree raids probly hurt the server, Not likely in a major way, but if your talking about people putting time into raids instead of leveling it is true

[Corrderio]

The only thing I can agree with is the first point. The low overall population does make it difficult to find a shell to do the R50 with.

[Tsukino]

Wait, Behest? The thing you can solo and actually get bonus skill points specifically for doing ones other people haven't touched? I don't see how other people neglecting them does anything but make them better for you.

[Molly_Millions]

I'd actually argue that it's not the dungeons that killed SP parties and behests, but SE's changes to leves and behest SP. Currently there are no SP chains, and without them grinding is kinda boring. Not to mention the beastmen encampments are way over-camped even on Fabul, one of the lowest pop servers. Having said that, I have confidence that SE can turn that around in 1.19.