Your opinion on the level cap being raised/Abyssea

[Noob]

Before I start this thread, I first want to say to the moderators that I've done browsed through the last 5 pages checking to make sure a similar post wasn't already created before deciding to start this thread. I hope it doesn't get locked nor that I'm violating any sort of rules for making this post. If I have, I apologize ahead of time.

With that said, I recently returned to the game this week after having been banned back in February for using an injection bot with my HNMLS (a technical error happened one morning when the bot had a major malfunction, failing to clean up after itself, causing our accounts to be flagged for unusual activity). I wanted to see how different the game was after recent updates and the addition of Abyssea.

It immediately hit me that I was playing an entirely different game. Needless to say, I was disappointed at the volume of new equipment bearing stats which made nearly all previously obtained equipment from other endgame events near obsolete, killing the incentive to continue doing those events. I also found it disappointing at just how much raising the level cap had changed the game, making nearly everything outside of Abyssea very easy to lowman.

With that said, I know things aren't going to change. I have no intentions of returning and I'm sure I'll be quoted in a reply to this thread with someone saying something along the lines of "just quit already" in addition to "their was no need for this post, just GTFO" but I want to make it very clear that this thread's not for the sake of Q.Q'ing nor starting a flame war. I'm just eager to know where everyone stands with these recent updates and changes to the game and how they feel about it.

[orson]

Stuff outside of abyssea was already easy to lowman with very minor exceptions. You can't have new content that continually expands horizontally you need the upwards progression in gear and power otherwise things start to stagnate. Raising the level cap was probably one the greatest things they ever did and abyssea is by far the best addition to the game in many years.

[Rocl]

I, for one, got tired of doing the same events for over 3 years. I am content never having to return to Salvage, Dynamis, Limbus or any of those.

[Apelila]

My opinion is that Abyssea made doing older events fun BECAUSE they're easier. It's much less of a pain in the ass to organize those events now because you don't require the same # of people, or at least a specific # of people who aren't retarded.. At least, that's been my mileage. People don't mind doing the old content to see how much they can plow through it now with abandon.

My biggest concern with Abyssea is the mindset change. People don't give 2 flying shit's about xp anymore, and while that is very welcome its not so much when you have a WHM who's box bitched from 30 to end game and never played a mage job before. They don't always suck, but they're never as good as the ones who leveled the job the old fashioned way.

[Rocl]

ASTRAL BURNS RUINED FFXI

[Sylvrdragon]

I think its the best thing to ever happen to this game.

Some people complain that all the old gear has been made obsolete, but far more people complained that we had been struggling to obtain the SAME gear for 5 straight years. Maybe its cause I played WoW for a while, so I got used to them making gear obsolete once every few months.

Some people might have issues.with how good Perle, Teal, and Aurore gear is compared to how easy it is to get (and possibly the same for AF3), but I'd wager that by the time 99 rolls around, we won't even remember how good we used to think it was when it came out.

I also think the difficulty of the game is about to get ridiculous and our goto strategies aren't going to work on the high-end stuff they're about to be throwing at us.

I think the Magian trials replaced XP/Meripos as the standard grind of the game.

[GreenKnux]

Abyssea is the best thing to happen to this game. It made exp and dieing less important, it made getting new gear fun and actually worth something other than a .1% increase in some stat no one cares about, and it made it a hell of a lot easier for someone like me to actually see the world of Vanadiel.

The fact that you botted proves to me that you are the wrong type of people to play any online game. I'm sick of min/maxing munchkins.

[Noob]

Good points. Maybe it's harder for me to accept change than it is for most people.

*Edit* Won't deny botting was wrong nor the moral dilemma involved with choosing to do so. I paid for it but knew the risks. It was a very sad afternoon the day I got LM-17'd. Set me up for months of painful reminiscing on times that will always be missed.

[Khajit]

If you want stuff the old shitty way go play 14.

[shepardG]

Abyssea isn't the best thing to happen to FFXI, FFXIV is.

someone else said that but it made so much sense thought it was 'thread' appropriate.

[Hyan]

Abyssea isn't the best thing to happen to FFXI, FFXIV is.

2 years of shit for maybe 2 years of good content? I'd say things could have been even better if it wasn't for XIV.

Either way at this point in the game's life I guess drastical changes like this keep the game interesting. Especially when it really doesn't take as much effort as if they were to keep the cap at 75 and try to create more stuff for players to do out of "old" content.

Gotta say their add-on system is pretty good when done right and with proper resources. With lower playerbase they deal with the additional costs by making you pay for the content itself on top of the subs fee. Just gotta make the player feel like the content isn't a rip-off.

[Francisco]

MMOs are goal oriented... and after 6+ years of gear and abilities being pretty linear, you're gonna have a majority of your player base either having achieved all their goals, or reaching a level where the decide improving their characters isn't worth the time invested (those who chose not to do a relic, get that +1 abjuration gear, etc)... when players have nothing left to aim for, the game becomes stagnant and people start to play less and eventually quit. When people start leaving an MMO, it can also have a domino effect... If player A has 7 friends and 4 quit... he might log on less often, which might cause his other two friends to quit all together. Then player A has no more friends in the MMO, and he quits too. It was happening a LOT in FFXI, dating back to mid-ToAU (when I started to notice it). Some players max out their characters and quit knowing they went out on top.

FFXI kinda ran into a corner at 75. RoZ ushered in some amazing gear, most of which was not topped until Salvage... some of which is still completely unrivaled and will probably stay that way (D.Ring, Black Belt)... SE seemed really hesitant to make gear more powerful than the RoZ stuff.

Even relics, while the best out there, some weren't that far ahead of vanilla weapons... and SE had no breathing room with gear progression here. How close were Destroyers to Spharai? Subduer and lolRagnarok were nearly identical weapons.

SE really had no other alternatives than to raise the level cap; and I see no downside to it really... new JA, new WS, new equipment - tons of new challenges... the atma system is amazing... etc...

Case in point... I logged on 7/27/09 to kill Pandemonium Warden with my LS. We won. I didn't log on again til one in September. Then I logged on once after Christmas in December. Then I let my account get shut off (credit card expired, didn't care to log on).

Sometime in the spring, maybe April, I heard the level cap was getting increased. I logged on, played a little, got jobs like DNC, WAR and NIN up to 40... then disappeared again until the level cap increase.

Since Abyssea came out, I've been on ~5 times a week (which is lowballing it... since I don't want to admit to 6 or 7) - and I'm pretty stoked about the upcoming update.

What SE really needs to do now... and by now - I mean no more than 1-2 weeks after the next update... is announce their plans/timeline for 2011... as good as Abyssea has been; I think people might be a bit worried that the end of abyssea marks the end of the "good" new content. Putting those fears to rest would be in SE's best interest.

[ronin sparthos]

Abyssea is the best thing to happen to the game because it took everything that made FFXI a fucking chore and eased up a ton.

The idea that gear is progressing and you wont be grinding some god awful event for years just for ONE drop alone makes it the best thing to happen to this game. Add on the fact that content is largely designed for small groups and you have a grab 'n go event that can be done at any time. Drops are plentiful and though there is alot of repetition, it still manages to be 100x more fun than Dynamis ever was.

Really, fuck Dynamis.

With Abyssea, you can spend 5mins or 5hours and feel you've done something. !! procs also keep things mildly interesting.

Really it all comes down to SE letting go of FFXI as the flagship of the online series which allows the developers to do things that otherwise wouldn't have happened before.

[GreenKnux]

See, I think there is enough content to last a while. I'm not saying they should let it stagnate, but you have to admit we've been getting a surprising amount of awesome for a game that is supposed to be overshadowed by 14.

I really do attribute it to the new director. Things seemed to just turn around once he decided to start fixing things.

[Falaras]

The fact merit parties straight up don't exist anymore is the worst part for me, that and getting EXP now means you need to spend several hours to even start doing so and I don't like doing the same boring thing for 6 hours to feel like I accomplished something (worse than kings 100x over).

[Plow]

It immediately hit me that I was playing an entirely different game. Needless to say, I was disappointed at the volume of new equipment bearing stats which made nearly all previously obtained equipment from other endgame events near obsolete, killing the incentive to continue doing those events. I also found it disappointing at just how much raising the level cap had changed the game, making nearly everything outside of Abyssea very easy to lowman.

I think you've pointed out the one downside:

They made lv 75 stuff easier to get done due to not needing as many people, but at the same time made it pointless anyway. I have a hard time convincing myself to go do stuff I've done a thousand times, even if it is in much more entertaining/less painful manners, because there's just no point.

Anyway, I think for the most part you're going to get the same response over and over, i.e. "Abyssea is awesome, almost everything about it is awesome," because, well, it is.

Only shitty part is dealing with time, sucks having to break up your nm farming to go grind on the easiest mobs around to keep time flowing.

The fact merit parties straight up don't exist anymore is the worst part for me, that and getting EXP now means you need to spend several hours to even start doing so and I don't like doing the same boring thing for 6 hours to feel like I accomplished something (worse than kings 100x over).

^ was a valid argument early in visions, now, well, urdoinitwrong

Can beat old style merit xp by miles and miles with a single war and 2-3 healers, hell even a single nin with 1 healer can be competitive with old exp rates by the time you're 30 minutes in.

[Vincento]

The fact merit parties straight up don't exist anymore is the worst part for me, that and getting EXP now means you need to spend several hours to even start doing so and I don't like doing the same boring thing for 6 hours to feel like I accomplished something (worse than kings 100x over).

Perhaps you've been doing it wrong, exp alliances are laughable when compared to the speed of a staple merit party in abyssea.

e: wut is refreshing a page for

[Hyan]

I really do attribute it to the new director. Things seemed to just turn around once he decided to start fixing things.

Plus all the resources they seem to have gained since XIV's development was completely separated from XI.. it's a marketing ploy more than anything I guess.

Sure the battle director becoming the director shows as the story seems to have taken backseat while battle content has become more important, but as much as we diss Tanaka I wouldn't be surprised if he upped the game's budget quite a bit some time ago as well. Really good environment for the new director to work in, and I'm sure he has had some ideas of his own that he wanted to try out for a while now. Sure is refreshing.

[Falaras]

^ was a valid argument early in visions, now, well, urdoinitwrong

Granted I haven't played much at all since the new abyssea came out, I don't even own it, but this sounds like one of those Doing it right vs What everyone actually is doing arguments. If I go looking for EXP all I ever find is abyssea alliances, I'm sure fel cleaving and such with your LS or a few friends is nice but I wouldn't say it's normal for most people.

[TheDirtyHobo]

Granted I haven't played much at all since the new abyssea came out, I don't even own it, but this sounds like one of those Doing it right vs What everyone actually is doing arguments. If I go looking for EXP all I ever find is abyssea alliances, I'm sure fel cleaving and such with your LS or a few friends is nice but I wouldn't say it's normal for most people.

For what it's worth, an average seal farming night while just farming TEs inbetween nets us about 6-8 merits in 2-3 hours with 6-8 people, and that's holding back WSes to not get ruby killshots. And we're kind of average, so I wouldn't doubt some groups are pulling off much better numbers.