Player Opinions: ToAU

[Gwynplaine]

Aht Urghan has come and gone, and the new expansion is due in less than a month. So before everyone's busy meritting on pixies and checking to see if they indeed did see Cait-Sith, I wanted to see what players thought of Treasures of Aht Urhgan as a whole. This is a big post, but I think 20 months of updates warrants one. There was so much added during the span of ToAU it's extremely easy to forget what took place. Take a moment to remember some of the features and updates the ToAU Development Team brought to FFXI:

Jobs:
New jobs, Blue Mage, Corsair, Puppetmaster. Category 2 merit abilities, traits, and spells added to all existing jobs.
Paladin went through several updates. Shield blocks and bash stuns were increased, shield mastery and auto-refresh were added. Sentinel, and Rampart were overhauled.
Dark Knight received Absorb-TP, Drain II, and Dread Spikes. The recast times on all absorb spells were lowered.
Samurai underwent some big changes as well having Hasso and Seigan added at a level allowing for subjob use.
Dragoon had several tweaks including 2-hour and jump recast changes. A new level of accuracy trait added, and the healing rates of wyverns were increased.
Summoner bloodpacts were split into two categories, and summoning skill over the cap now affects bloodpacts.
Beastmaster's Call Beast pet duration was increased. HP regained while using Stay. The exp penalty while using pets was removed. Old jug pet synth recipes were changed.
Bard received a low level movement increase song, Raptor Mazurka.

Events:
Salvage, Einherjar, Assault, Nyzul Isle, ISNM, Ashu Talif quests.

Activities:
Besieged, Chocobo Raising and Racing, Pankration, Venture Roll, Chocobo Hot and Cold, the Colosseum (eventually).

Notorious Monsters:
Cerberus, Hydra, and Khimaira HNM were added. Magic resistance was added to NM's. Kraken Club, Fuma Kyahan, Speed Belt, Ochiudo's Kote, Strider Boots, Healing Staff, Eurytos' Bow, Cross-Counters NM's were given rare/exclusive equivalents and the regulars moved to battlefields. Big Bomb, Alkyoneus, Pallas, Sozu Rogberry were made into forced spawn. The Ullikummi "fix". The Ullikummi "fix", fix. The Despot "fix". Virtues from sea gods always drop now.

Equipment:
Equipment set bonus' and Grips were introduced. Quivers, and pouches for more ammo and virtue stones were added. Walahra Turban, Hauteclaire, Algol, Perdu weapons, Bibiki Seashell, Orochi Nodowa, Barbarossa's Zerehs. Thief Knife is a household item now. Cassie Earring, Serket Ring, and Juggernaut were added to battlefield awards. Salvage, Assault, Nyzul, and Einherjar armor sets. Not only high level, but low level equipment such as Qiqirn Sash as well. Because certain items became so common, those materials and equipment, such as Iqqira Weskit, became extremely cheap.

Enemies:
New enemies and areas brought about new trends in partying, and a new standard for points gained over time. In general, enemies introduced with AU have a much more dynamic behavior than enemies in the rest of the game. Different weapons or TP attacks can be triggered depending on the type of mob. Enemies that are aggressive to job abilities, or are untargetable until aggroing were unique additions.

Accessibility and Travel:
Runic portals and the undersea ruins make getting around fast for anyone who can use a map. Al Zhabi has convenient travel to Jueno, and to/from your home nations, and Al Zahbi. The Olduum ring is easy to obtain and handy at times, more so now that woodlands has chocobo rental on arrival. In most areas now personal chocobos can be called on demand. It's possible to teleport to sky from any crag using the green teleporters now.

Square-Enix:
During the ToAU era I think that SE's attitude toward it's player base has without a doubt changed for the better. Many specific updates seem to have been influenced by actual player suggestions. They still have a lot of room for improvement sure, but it's a far cry from the CoP days where it seemed like they were basically an unseen and unheard presence in their own game.

Their attitude toward RMT in particular has been surprising. Last October SE created the Special Task Force to especially deal with the abundant RMT and use of illegal programs. Most people were expecting another huge spike in inflation about this time last year. It never came however, and in fact the situation is the complete opposite experiencing a large deflation instead. Goblin Bounty Hunters now roam the beaches patrolling for squishy, low level fishbots. RMT of course are still around, but their presence seems to have relatively little impact. The days of Kuftal wars and Roc Stars are gone, and now manipulating the AH and repeating avatar fights for 10k are a more common, and subtle tactic. The majority of ToAU's best awards are designed to be rather RMT unfriendly as well.

General:
Sanction rewards helped make exp gained in parties much faster. Signet later had it's own bonus' added. Mazurka enmity was deflated to effectively end the days of /BRD tanking. Two-handed weapons received a huge boost, and several WS were modified. Mog Locker added 80 more storage spaces from any city. Maximum merit points for skills increased. Many daggers had a boost to base damage. Characters can now transfer to any server, and new ones created on any server of their choosing. Mission awards can now be re obtained, or changed for another type. Limbus fees were lowered to 30k. Outpost teleportation can actually be used at a sensible level now. CoP mission items can now be sold on AH. Exp loss was removed from all mission battles and death while charmed. Exp loss for raise and reraise increased to 50%.

Criticisms:
The most common complaints are mainly that some of FFXI's age old problems remain directly unchanged. Mainly the exclusivity of HNM abjurations, Ridill, Defending Ring, and Dynamis/Limbus overcrowding. Other than that while other changes are great once they're implemented, some basic updates seemed to come too slowly over time. For instance, there was no chocobo/storage/weather NPC available in Aht Urhgan until 3 months after its release. This seemed to me at best like a glaring oversight, or at worst an idiotic decision. Similarly the horrid lag that has plagued Aht Urghan Whitegate and Besieged from day 1 still lingers. Einherjar seems to receive much of the criticism lately. Being the newest event, there may be time to further adjust it to be more attractive in the future. If everything goes well, perhaps someday players will get to complain that Dynamis, Limbus, and Einherjar are overcrowded.

As a whole though, it's my opinion that the changes made during ToAU did something pretty spectacular. Simultaneously bringing new things to the game, while giving the old content a much needed makeover. In effect, those changes brought new value to existing content. There's now more to do than ever, to the point most people need to pick and choose what they want to spend their time towards. Variety is really the meat of AU, offering alternative gear choices within instanced events, and many easy to access activities during downtime. I don't think it's far fetched to say that AU has been FFXI's most ambitious expansion so far, and that for the most part it was a successful one.

[Wildman]

Mog Locker added 80 more storage spaces from any city. Maximum merit points for skills increased.

By far my favorite updates during ToA.

[Kaylia]

Only notable thing for me was Salvage (post update...was garbage before) and Assault. Locker was needed at this point in the game with everyone having more than 2 jobs at 75.

[Retrieving/C.D/Searain]

The DEX = Acc change for 2 handers is definately the biggest mistake the development team has done during the ToAU era, aside from that the game was substantially improved in pretty much every aspect (well, everything except the economy I guess).

[riddaraan]

Finally, a topic I can wrap my teeth around.

ToAU was, overall, a huge box of awesome. The new jobs offered three interesting options to various player types: The multi-job player got COR to play with; The Ballista fan got BLU to cheat with; and the loner-without-a-hope player got shafted with PUP.

Existing job updates were for the most part completely awesome. Perhaps a little disappointing since they didn't update every job as fully as they could have, like they promised us last FanFest. But all in all, with Cat2 merits, we don't have a whole lot of room to complain. Of course Cat2 merits were by & large a mixed Trick-or-Treat bag filled with razorblades and jolly ranchers. While one merit may have sounded great, it possibly could've wound up wasting you 30k exp just to find out. In the end, these merits were either win or fail. Sadly, there's very little debating which are which.

Exp areas were about the best thing for ToA's general population. They provided a smoother transition from 60-75 for most people, I think, which helps get past that nasty slow crawl you suddenly used to reach at 50. This, plus merippo areas caused players to start equalizing at the top bracket of play. Sadly, this means that no one really outshines anyone anymore. Now anyone can have maxed merits, and it's not too hard.

Plotwise... I'm finishing this weekend. Compared to CoP, a huge disappointement. Even the reward was full of suck. I'll wear my ring a huge amount, no doubt, but CoP rings will dominate forever.

Goddess will probably be my last expansion, so I have high hopes. This game has been great the last 4 years of my life, and I'm glad to have been a part of it. They've kept me happy this long, so I'm still willing to bear with their mistakes, just as long as they keep pumping Paladin up. :D

ToAU Overall Rating:
7.2/10

[Alleya]

RoZ had great mobs and great gameplay.

CoP had annoying mobs and horrible gameplay.

ToaU had the best gameplay and the absolute worst mobs EVER.

Salvage, mog locker, besieged, 2h weapon changes, and the various job changes were all great steps in the right direction. Still, the expansion did very little to address the problems with previous expansions (IE, 3 kings, BCNM being useless, etc). It also created many new problems (utter newbs getting a free pass to 75, bottlenecking merit camps by making previous merit zones practically useless, etc) I'd give it a 7 out of 10. It loses a full point for Einherjar.

[theo]

Before reading this thread, its easy for me to forget just how much content ToA added to the game. Obviously not all of it is perfect but overall my impression of the expansion as a whole is a good one.

Among my favorite additions are faster exp, increased storage, 2-hand fix, and "lighter" events. By lighter I mean Assault and Salvage taking a fraction of the time + manpower as a typical dynamis run. Dyna-Glacier run last night nearly put me to sleep, after the first 2 hours roll by I just can't take it anymore. I really appreciate the way ToA moved the game in a direction away from needing huge amounts of people and time to get anything done.

[Starr]

Aht Ughan is win, I'd have quit if it was any later or not made.

[Tomino]

ToAU really dropped the game overall difficulty.
and this was good because it relieved some of the usual stress and made trasportation, exp/merits and storyline much, much easier. on the other side, it made most of players forget how to play, or how to handle their shiny new lv75 job grinded on floating exp, ie Colibris.

also, ToAU did introduce some very appealing and well designed low-men content. a nice change of pace since Sleepga-namys or the usual contested sky farm. Assaults/Salvage both works perfectly with stuff as Limbus, ENMs and the like to give players much to do, and much to claim as rewards.
now anyone with a social LS can experience much, and that's a great addiction.

[Kidzukai]

I like how the expansion sped up the game in most aspects and gave smaller groups of people more options in terms of stuff to do. It makes it easier to go and EXP with random people, and gives more exclusive groups of people a chance at superior equipment without needing 18+ to get it. Limbus is still my favorite thing to do in a small group, though.

Story-wise I found it quite bland as opposed to the city missions, RoZ and especially CoP; I still haven't bothered to finish the missions, but I guess that could partially be why. I didn't really find myself attached to any characters like I did with the others.

My main gripe is the obvious "RoZ was the first expansion and Fafnir is still among the most beneficial camps to this day," although the introduction of Salvage, Nyzul, and a few of the other recent changes has made it less of an issue at this point. Early ToAU sucked. Why did it take a year to release everything when the original "plan" said December of 06ish? >|

[Tajin]

Assault gets a full 10/10 from me, same with Salvage (still needs better drop rate, but which part of the game doesn't?)

Overall a very nice expansion, Blue Mage is awesome. The warps from each home nation to Whitegate are awesome too.

I love the cutscenes, each and everyone of them.

8/10

[BRP]

Best expansion. RotZ being the worse and CoP sucking a bit because of RotZ.

[Tadghostal]

Yay for an expansion full of xp mobs that explode when you look at them. Bleh.

I appreciate the faster xp and full merits, but as previously mentioned, pre-ToAU high lvl camps are now barren and practically useless. SE should do what they can to fix that and Einjerhar. Storyline and fights were meh.

New jobs, job updates (especially PLD buffs and 2-hander buffs) were great, as are Assaults, Salvage, Ashu Talif and Besieged.

Overall I say 7.5/10.

[Liseth]

The thing I liked best about ToAU is probably just the "look" and style of the expansion. SE took a step forward by not putting Orcs, Quadavs, and Goblins in ToAU. Assault is incredibly fun and so is Salvage. I love the Runic Portal. My only complaint is the AUW lag. I like BLU and COR, PUP not so much.

P.S. SE we need instanced Dynamis and Limbus zones. Kthx.
P.S.S. Hi Tajin. :3

[Thistle]

I loved ToAU as much as I hated CoP.

Beautiful new city, great jobs, Assault, Besieged!, so much great stuff, not a level cap in sight. (Unless you wanted to add one, but adding one by choice does not count.)

[Charismatic]

Damn, I must be the only one who loved CoP.
I think they need to stick to that formula... but without level caps.

All I like from ToAU is not taking forever to get anywhere.

[Mikeal]

Best expansion. RotZ being the worse and CoP sucking a bit because of RotZ.

ToA fails on the missions IMO. The challenge is nill, the reward is crap.

CoP zones sucked, but the mission challenge was great, the story was good, and the reward was good. All the winy 'lil bitches' that couldn't do the missions successfully ruin the opportunity for others that look forward to that kind of challenge.

[Liseth]

Damn, I must be the only one who loved CoP.
I think they need to stick to that formula... but without level caps.

I loved COP. The last cutscene was worth all the drama getting to Sea.

[Lordender]

ToAU Pros for me:

1. 3 zones of Salvage after the changes.

2. 2h update, grips.

3. assaults.

ToAU Cons for me:

1. Dumbed the game down way too much, I don't like the fact horrible/newb ls's can kill certain HNM like Tiamat because of the overpowered pld changes saving them when they previously had no chance.

2. Einherjar.

3. Overpowering sam.

4. added alot of pointless stuff that will be drawn out over unreasonable amount of time like choco racing and pankration.

5. Silversea drop rates.

[Fhqwghads]

or are untargetable until aggroing were unique additions

Not unique. UFOs and sharks in Sea are both untargetable until they aggro (yeah I'm nit-picking.)

ToAH did add some fairly different content compared to previous updates. It also added some frustration, from the lag in Whitegate, to cramped XP/merit areas, and mob moves that make you think the devs are masochistic (want to eat food? DENIED. Want to use that JA? DENIED.) I'll reiterate that the Fafhogg cluster-fuck is still broken. The game engine itself needs an overhaul, get rid of the stupid 30 FPS cap and let end-users decide whether or not they want to apply effects like anti-aliasing at the driver level. Hydra is lame. There was no real Rare/Ex k.club replacement. Pankration will flop just like many other gimmicky activities they've attempted in the past.

All the things they did right though are wonderful. Having a ton of different activities to choose from really keeps the game from getting too stale. The new jobs, new gear, updates to 2 handers, war on RMT, etc. were all great. There's still content I haven't touched, and might not get a chance to due to the rapidly approaching expansion. I like the idea that at some point I can go back and take part in content that is still new to me.

The bottom line is that the direction SE is taking the game overall is really encouraging. I give ToAH 8/10. I'm looking forward to seeing what they did in WotG.