Premier Site Q&A Part IV on ZAM! (10/25/2010)

[Kirschy]

http://www.zam.com/story.html?story=23813

In Part IV of their Premier Site Q&A sessions, the Final Fantasy XI Development Team tackled questions from the ZAM team regarding the new Scars of Abyssea add-on scenario. Japanese translations of all questions and answers are available below the cut.

1) Bastion is a new battle system that allows for players to gain large amounts of experience points, cruor, and resistance credits, used to purchase the normal quality Empyrean leg armor, in relatively short periods of time. Currently, it is very difficult to make any progress in Bastion if there are very few other players there, as the resistance fighter npcs offer very little support. This leads to battles lasting only a few seconds after they start and very little experience gained. What plans are there, if any, to adjust Bastion to allow for it to be more low-man friendly?

We are aware that at certain times of day players may find themselves severely outnumbered in Bastion battles. To give small groups a fighting chance, we intend to give NPC Resistance fighters a boost in power, as well as to make clone wards more resistant to damage.

That said, the Abyssean hordes will not be routed so easily. Especially in the event that martello cores have attracted the attention of scores of foes, we urge that players expend all effort to perform resistance operations in advance to gain every possible advantage in the forthcoming battle!


2) Currently, the normal quality Empyrean feet armor pieces can only be obtained through golden chests in the new Abyssea areas. This unfortunately has caused some issues since their inception, ranging from players in alliances lotting on them despite not having the jobs for them leveled to not seeing a single piece drop in a several hour farming session. What plans are there, if any, to allow for players to obtain these particular pieces more readily and will these changes also allow for more control over what players get what pieces?

With the next version update, we intend to make Empyrean Armor pieces more readily available from small golden pyxides. This should solve the problem of players obtaining nothing for several hours.

This will also make it feasible for players to focus their efforts on obtaining these armor pieces by increasing the drop rate of small chests, rather than having to settle for experience and cruor gains while hoping for the fortuitous appearance of a large chest, as is often the case now.

3) As with the previous add-on, the tier II and tier III Voidwalker Notorious Monsters in the new Abyssea areas only have a single spawn in the their respective zones with an hour long respawn after they are killed. While this was a minor nuisance in the Vision areas, it's become a far bigger hassle in the Scars areas due to the tier III Voidwalker NMs being one of the few sources for the items used in the HQ2 Empyrean Armor pieces. Was this intended as a means of keeping players from obtaining the HQ2 Empyrean pieces, and if not, what plans are there to potentially adjust these NMs?

The placement and spawn rate of Scars of Abyssea NMs were set as they are to preserve balance and control the acquisition rate of upgraded Empyrean Armor. We realize, however, that due to the sheer number of players competing for the upgrade items, they are currently more difficult to obtain than we anticipated.

We intend to address this in the next version update by reducing the respawn time for certain NMs. While the specifics are still under discussion, we anticipate that the delay will be reduced by about half. This should provide many players with a long-awaited opportunity to upgrade.


Welcomed changes for sure~

[Don Katsu]

Welcome changes indeed. Also, I think it's funny that they are actually answering questions now instead of saying. "This is currently under review. Wait and See! We wouldn't want to ruin the surprise! ^^"

[Cream Soda]

Who the fuck asked these questions... what a waste.

[Snprphnx]

how about they ask the question why we cant stack empyrean weapon NM drops, like Carabosse Gems. running outta fuckin storage

[Nameless]

While I think those questions are pretty good. Another good question would be: the new empyrean WSs are extremely overpowering, making even the WoE version better than some of its relic counter part. Was that by design? and will empyrean WS eventually be accessible to all players? The idea of magian weapons are that players are able to select the path they want that fit their playing style, but now it seems like it is either empyrean WS or bust, how do you balance that aspect of the game out?

[TehKerm]

Questions great to me, im tired of fighting for my fucking af feet -.-;

[Fiarlia]

Once everyone has their feet people are gonna bitch that there's too many NQ feet dropping from the chests. =/

[grozny]

Stop farming with 18 people..

[Massimo]

how about they ask the question why we cant stack empyrean weapon NM drops, like Carabosse Gems. running outta fuckin storage

Gee, Bub, you could try upgrading the weapon and trading them to the box.

[dannyl]

Would have been nice if they brought up STORAGE issues. I think we're all feeling the pinch when it comes down to Storage. I wouldn't doubt they will never increase storage so we're all forced to get those extra mules and pay an extra $1 across the board. =/

[ronin sparthos]

While I think those questions are pretty good. Another good question would be: the new empyrean WSs are extremely overpowering, making even the WoE version better than some of its relic counter part. Was that by design? and will empyrean WS eventually be accessible to all players? The idea of magian weapons are that players are able to select the path they want that fit their playing style, but now it seems like it is either empyrean WS or bust, how do you balance that aspect of the game out?

I think it was done on purpose in order to direct attention to Walk of Echoes.

[Cream Soda]

Gee, Bub, you could try upgrading the weapon and trading them to the box.

Some people may want to be ambitious and work on other Emp weapons. Adding in armor and any other trials you have, keep in mind a max of 5 active at a time.

[Massimo]

You're right, some people might have awful priorities. Sucks to be those guys.

[Shenrien]

>_> c'mon... not one comment about the shitty fucking WoE system? god damn.

[Therin]

They need to implement Retainers similar to those in FFXIV. A set of NPCs, one in each town, with 80 additional inventory spaces. Charge an additional $1/month to access it so that it is like a mule, but doesn't require logging in and out over and over while making painful trips to the D.Box. And you could store Rare/EX gear there. I think there are many people who would pay $1/month for the extra convenience of a Retainer.

[Shenrien]

They need to implement Retainers similar to those in FFXIV. A set of NPCs, one in each town, with 80 additional inventory spaces. Charge an additional $1/month to access it so that it is like a mule, but doesn't require logging in and out over and over while making painful trips to the D.Box. And you could store Rare/EX gear there. I think there are many people who would pay $1/month for the extra convenience of a Retainer.

I'd buy 5...

[ronin sparthos]

>_> c'mon... not one comment about the shitty fucking WoE system? god damn.

This would have been my first question to the devs.

Either they need to make the system like Einherjar where you break and item and pass out to people you want inside the flux or dumb down the difficulty of the chambers overall.

Currently the system is punishing to linkshells that want to farm chambers without leeches coming in and the it's too hard to organize a PUG to win anything outside chamber 2 because the AOE attacks are so devastating that you're likely to be oneshot on any DD that isn't properly buffed.

WoE needs to make up its mind. Does it want to be Campaign or does it want to be Einherjar?

[Klaatu]

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

STFU! This is good change. Granted not all issues have been asked/address, but be thankful they're giving you answers and not making shit worse.

[Vlorsutes]

As I said on FFXIAH, we knew that no matter what, there'd be no way to ask questions that everyone would be happy with, but they were questions pertaining to the topic we were given that we kept seeing pop up here and there.

[Not Kuno]

Better than nothing.