PLEASE CAP THE ZODIAC DROP RATE

[Kikoten]

Not sure in what sense you consider Atma a disappointment, but I can at least say that Animus is a real i100 weapon whereas Atma is not. Atma says it's i100 but has the same weapon/magic damage stat as an i90.

I guess it was a disappointment because when I went from Zenith to Atma, I was expecting a stat boost, and to actually feel stronger. Instead, I found out I had to get 9 books to actually get those upgrades, so I said screw it and put my ambitions to bed for a while. Now I've gotten back into the grind, so I was just wondering if I somehow get Animus, will it actually feel like an upgrade, and not a letdown in the sense that my weapon transforming into Animus means not actually feeling stronger.

[Allyrion]

This thread is discouraging. I came back recently after a year long break.

I farmed Atma non-stop when it came out and got it within a week (though I died a little inside). Then I did Animus.
I heard they raised the Atma drop rates, which is good. And Yoshida said he understood the complaints and wouldn't make it as bad going on.

Animus books were great. No RNG other than having to wait for certain fate spawns (which isn't exactly RNG either).
I'm fine with RNG in stats or combat mechanics. I hate ring when it comes to rewards.

Back then, I accepted Atma for what it was, but I *really* hoped they would make it more like the books going forward.
Especially since complaints back then were that the Atma could take a few minutes to eight hours in one zone. Worse if you're unlucky.
My average was 6-7 hours of pure farming per zone.

I restarted as a NIN now that I'm back and now I'm not sure if it's worth doing with the expansion around to corner or if I could finish.

[synesthetic]

This thread is discouraging. I came back recently after a year long break.

I farmed Atma non-stop when it came out and got it within a week (though I died a little inside). Then I did Animus.
I heard they raised the Atma drop rates, which is good. And Yoshida said he understood the complaints and wouldn't make it as bad going on.

Animus books were great. No RNG other than having to wait for certain fate spawns (which isn't exactly RNG either).
I'm fine with RNG in stats or combat mechanics. I hate ring when it comes to rewards.

Back then, I accepted Atma for what it was, but I *really* hoped they would make it more like the books going forward.
Especially since complaints back then were that the Atma could take a few minutes to eight hours in one zone. Worse if you're unlucky.
My average was 6-7 hours of pure farming per zone.

I restarted as a NIN now that I'm back and now I'm not sure if it's worth doing with the expansion around to corner or if I could finish.

There's enough time to start a relic from scratch and finish it. Even more so considering the 3.0 relics won't be released until a couple of weeks after launch, and i130 will be the best for a lot of the new content (and still extremely good by level cap).
There's also still hope that Yoshida will follow through with his comment on people who've finished their zetas getting some kind of compensation.

Is it worth it though? Depends on your tolerance for grind.

Farming up a full set of atma can be done within a day or so.
Animus book FATEs aren't tied to other FATEs' anymore, and have respawn times of around 30-90 minutes, from what I've seen.
I can't say what materia for a Novus sphere scroll will be like on your server, but it's probably still modestly expensive for a 3-stat build, and extremely expensive for a 2-stat.
Nexus light grind still sucks, but how much lights are given per message was all bumped up a tier.
Zodiac is a major test of patience and luck. But if you can get through it, you're done. You're also going to need ~1mil gil; 400k minimum from buying quest items, and then more from buying crafted turn-in items. Hopefully you have a crafter friend, or can find someone willing to craft with given mats.
Zeta light grind isn't so bad. Inflated numbers compared to Nexus' grind, but lots of tiers in between so it doesn't feel like such a chore. Also a lot of people do this step (or Nexus) while farming zodiac drops for their next relic.

[Evangela]

RNG needs to go away from this game completely.

[BobbinT]

RNG needs to go away from this game completely.

Name one MMO that's completely devoid of RNG. lol

[TetsuyaHikari]

RNG needs to go away from this game completely.

RNG itself can be fine at times, but when your game starts breaking its own rules regarding RNG, then issues arise. I'd be more comfortable with FFXIV's RNG system if it was a Quasi Random system rather than a Pseudo Random system. In other words, something which actually presented in a random manner rather than something which pretends to be random, but actually isn't because it's following an algorithm which requires the player to meet unknown specifications to perform certain tasks.

Quasi Random:

A sequence of n
-tuples that fills n-space more uniformly than uncorrelated random points, sometimes also called a low-discrepancy sequence. Although the ordinary uniform random numbers and quasirandom sequences both produce uniformly distributed sequences, there is a big difference between the two. A uniform random generator on [0, 1) will produce outputs so that each trial has the same probability of generating a point on equal subintervals, for example [0,1/2) and [1/2, 1). Therefore, it is possible for n trials to coincidentally all lie in the first half of the interval, while the n+1st point still falls within the other of the two halves with probability 1/2.

This is not the case with the quasirandom sequences, in which the outputs are constrained by a low-discrepancy requirement that has a net effect of points being generated in a highly correlated manner (i.e., the next point "knows" where the previous points are). Such a sequence is extremely useful in computational problems where numbers are computed on a grid, but it is not known in advance how fine the grid must be to obtain accurate results. Using a quasirandom sequence allows stopping at any point where convergence is observed, whereas the usual approach of halving the interval between subsequent computations requires a huge number of computations between stopping points.

Pseudo Random:

A pseudorandom process is a process that appears to be random but is not. Pseudorandom sequences typically exhibit statistical randomness while being generated by an entirely deterministic causal process. Such a process is easier to produce than a genuinely random one, and has the benefit that it can be used again and again to produce exactly the same numbers - useful for testing and fixing software.

To generate truly random numbers requires precise, accurate, and repeatable system measurements of absolutely non-deterministic processes. Linux uses, for example, various system timings (like user keystrokes, I/O, or least-significant digit voltage measurements) to produce a pool of random numbers. It attempts to constantly replenish the pool, depending on the level of importance, and so will issue a random number. This system is an example, and similar to those of dedicated hardware random number generators.

A pseudorandom variable is a variable which is created by a deterministic procedure (often a computer program or subroutine) which (generally) takes random bits as input. The pseudorandom string will typically be longer than the original random string, but less random (less entropic, in the information theory sense). This can be useful for randomized algorithms.

Pseudorandom number generators are widely used in such applications as computer modeling (e.g., Markov chains), statistics, experimental design, etc.

[Elusana_Celah]

My problem is the dungeons I really enjoy like tam-tara hard mode and haukke manor hard mode I got in one shot. The dungeons I hate like halatali hard mode and hullbreaker and qarn I had 30 attempts each or more. I finished my Zodiac but it took a very, very long time because so much RNG disappointment left me unable to do anymore dungeons I had to wait until my mood felt like doing it. I have never supported dungeon grinding with RNG in any MMO.

[BreathlessTao]

Eh. Same as it was with atma when that was relevant. SE didn't bother then either, they just increased the drop rate a little whenever they seemed fit to do so. :/ Feel your pain, but I doubt it'll happen, not because the players request it anyway.

[sayafrost]

I had a really bad drop rate with alexandrites. Now I'm doing second round of dungeon drops while doing lights on my second relic. I just started so I have no idea how many times I will have to do them.... but I'm know as being unlucky when it comes to rng