Yoshi P, is this what you wanted? (Terra Branford Blues)

[thendcomes]

I loved the game, but that's past tense. I'm a pretty loyal player, but when I was farming Gaius after probably 15+h of game time and seeing people get their cards in under an hour, I seriously started to think about quitting for a few months.

Momoko, I know you've been playing since the beginning, so this is especially meaningful. I really wonder about the lengths to which they will test our passion for, and our loyalty to, the game. This recent trial combined with how the RNG has ramped up over the patches, I've put serious thought into quitting as well, but I've bitched out every time. Maybe we're just suckers and SE knows we'll always come crawling back in the end.

[QuinceTaru]

Momoko, I know you've been playing since the beginning, so this is especially meaningful. I really wonder about the lengths to which they will test our passion for, and our loyalty to, the game. This recent trial combined with how the RNG has ramped up over the patches, I've put serious thought into quitting as well, but I've bitched out every time. Maybe we're just suckers and SE knows we'll always come crawling back in the end.

I feel you pain i stopped doing dragons neck after 200 runs, if it wasnt for my friends in game i would have been gone a long time ago Good friend make the RNG drops not so bad!

[Riepah]

Good friend make the RNG drops not so bad!

The problem is that the nature of RNG makes playing with friends a pain in the long run. If one friend gets their drop after a while, and the other still didn't get it after ages of trying, the former friend will eventually get tired of rerunning the RNG content over and over after they got what they needed, and would instead like to focus on RNG grind of something they didn't get yet.

Zodiac is a good example of that. The fastest way to complete it is to run solo - because if you run it with friends, and you get your drop before your friend, you're stuck re-running a dungeon that has become worthless to you until your friend gets the drop as well. Rather than promoting playing together with people, it promotes selfishness.

[Kiara]

I completely feel the OP's pain. Pure RNG is just awful. We need a change to the Drop System:

A Weighted Random Number Generator System. A bunch of people brought this up a while ago, when Atma were first introduced (and the % was even lower than today). Specifically:

1. RNG Drop Rate + Increase Percentage(%) Chance for [Item] drop for Every Successful Clear (FATE, Dungeon, etc.), Until it Finally Drops.

For example, let's say the starting Drop Rate is 1% for an Atma. If you do a FATE and nothing drops, Square should add, say, +2% to your chance, so the NEXT FATE you do now has 3% (Base 1%+2%) chance. So at the most, you'd have to do 50 FATEs in the zone (+2% x 50 tries) to finally get your Atma Stone (if you had the worst luck).

This allows Yoshi P to keep that "Random Number Generator" / "Lottery" feel and grind (ugh), while providing a safety (and sanity) net for Players. So if you have bad luck, at least eventually you'll get the Item to drop within a reasonable amount of time. The Actual Bonus Percentage per Win/Clear can be balanced to whatever feels fair (+2%, +5%, etc.).

This Hybrid approach is the best of both worlds. It's frustrating that Yoshi P and the Dev Team refuse to consider something like this; and just stick with a simple, archaic "Pure RNG Only" system (just keep banging your head against the wall, "rolling the dice" and hope one day it drops). It's awful.

Examples like yours of repeating the Ultros fight HUNDREDS of times before you finally got the Terra Triple Triad Card to drop is absurd. Seriously SE?!

This needs to change in 3.0.

[ish007xx]

lmao took me like 3days after i got bartz to get terra. Literally came on that day qued for fight and got it in like 6mins

[SociallyInept]

Been grinding instances for 2 weeks now. I rotate between the dungeons and trials once I get burnt out on either or. I have yet to get a Instance only card such as Tonberry or Odin.

Trials are the worst though never hardly anything in PF anymore since alot of people got their cards around launch, pre-fix when drop rates were high. Honestly don't feel like starting my own PF either to sit there for 2-3 hours trying to fill it when could just be que'ing. I have tried a couple times though. And DF lucky if you can even clear a EX trial that in itself is like a 5% chance on top of the card drop rate.

Sit there trying for Gaius while waiting in que. I've gotten about two stacks of each of his other cards I think except the nero probably close to 30 of those not exactly sure i sell everything off each night before retiring.

I did however win the 10k mini-cactpot once it was the only time I've seen the 7,8,9 number combo come up as-well. Was really excited about it until a person in one of my LS's was talking and had won 9 of them since launch as well as countless 3.6k ones. I'm honestly at my end as far as TT goes though. It would be nice to get my 60 at 49 atm, however I got better things to do like get my crafter caught up.

And personally so sick of dungeon grinding was a long time ago and why I already left game once for a little over a year. Only to come back to the exact same thing times ten, non-stop grinding the same instance over and over again. For everything from gear then it was relic to now odds and ends like cards. Loved FFXI, FFXIV 1.0 meh... it was alright I suppose only played for like 6 months though. But this rng based grind in 2.0+ is getting more absurd with each increase in version number.

Four months from now when they have new cards like everything else they'll just hand you as many of these ones as you could possibly want. So something to look forward to I suppose. Then it will be back to the exact same dungeons again, 500+ times each to grind the new cards and make your 80 or 100 card deck. And after we complete that deck they'll come out with idk dice or something and guess what back to the same dungeon/trial you finally got out of a couple days prior because its time to start the party all over lol..

[RobinRethiel]

Been grinding instances for 2 weeks now. I rotate between the dungeons and trials once I get burnt out on either or. I have yet to get a Instance only card such as Tonberry or Odin. ...

Feeling sorry for you and hope, they will change a good bit of GS, so it becomes more what people loved in FF7. It never was a Casino there and should not been.

There are a lot of games with casinos in it and they always have the same problem:
Problem 1: You only lose and it's just a money sink (like in reality)
Problem 2: you win too much and it becomes the main source for money, because why should you do anything else, if you simply can win it?

[Niwashi]

Been grinding instances for 2 weeks now.
...
I'm honestly at my end as far as TT goes though. It would be nice to get my 60 at 49 atm, however I got better things to do like get my crafter caught up.

And personally so sick of dungeon grinding was a long time ago and why I already left game once for a little over a year. Only to come back to the exact same thing times ten, non-stop grinding the same instance over and over again. For everything from gear then it was relic to now odds and ends like cards.

It sounds as though yes, perhaps it is time to take a break from this and get your crafter caught up, or some other goal.

The game does indeed have a lot of long grinds, but I've found the best way to avoid burnout on any of them is to frequently alternate between different goals. Rather than grinding the same thing over and over until I get what I'm after, I'll run dungeons a while, then I'll work on crafting for a bit, then come to the Gold Saucer for for some Triple Triad or to run a few chocobo races, then join a group to go after Hunt marks for a while, then maybe switch to one of my low-level classes to level it up for a while, then gather for a bit, and so on. Sure, looking at any one of the things I'm working towards, I take far longer to advance it than someone who's single-mindedly focused on that particular goal, but I'm also far less prone to burnout this way, so I can still enjoy each of the various pieces of the game rather than dreading the grind in any of them.