What Do FFXI Players Want for 2011 and How Was 2010?

[ronin sparthos]

The thing I didn't like about 2010 was Abyssea.
With traditional exp, there was always a "pressure" to keep the chain going to get good exp. You had to stay focused, and that I found stimulating. Even moreso with MMM, as not only did you have to keep the chain going, but kill everything within the time limit. There were drawbacks, such as an over-reliance on piercing damage and a need for support jobs few wanted to play, but at least friends could play together no matter what level they were owing to level sync. And then Abyssea distmantled it what took years to perfect.

The pressure to keep "good" EXP often either worked out really good or really bad. Too much time was spent LFP for certain jobs and certain camps just to wind up getting mediocre EXP/hr. MMM was a step forward but 6man EXP barely breaking 10k/hr was terrible and outside certain popular camps you were unlikely to do well.

In Abyssea, there is no pressure to defeat this mob right now. It doesn't matter if it takes you 2 seconds or 2 minutes to defeat the mob once you have lights, you'll still get the same 600 exp. You just don't have to try as hard, as it is not uncommon for some of the ally to be half-asleep at the wheel. It takes too long to build the base exp up, and then once you've built it up, it's too hard to walk away because you already have so much time invested into it already. Building an ally is time consuming, and keeping it going is a full time job in and of itself. The emphasis shifts from skill to luck as you're trying to get lights at the start. A single death is trivial at worst, making "losing" inconsequential. And besides, it's 18 people against ONE exp mob, where's the challenge in that?

Alliance EXP in its purest definition often winds up being exactly as you describe but there are so many ways to EXP. You can take that half asleep alliances lights, disband and solo. Or you could simply take your friends and get EXP while farming zones for items. Bastion and Dominion after getting some time also help to speed up those TNLs.

You're complaining about building lights when often in the time it currently takes to build lights you'd be still LFP just a few months ago? With NMs/VNMs/Emphs/Elementals giving lights, capping Azure/Pearl/Ruby is trivial.

It didn't matter how hard you "tried" in an old Caedarva PT, if the PT sucked then your time was being wasted. Dunno about you but getting a "good" party was a brief treat for me and LFPing for 4hrs+ for a half-disbanded PT was partly why I hated partying up.

In 2011, I want to see some of the fundamental flaws of FFXI fixed. Exp is given based upon mob level, rather than mob difficulty level. It never made sense in traditional parties, and Abyssea did nothing to fix it. Soulflayers should give double or triple (or more!) of the exp a Colibri gives. Camps should have several kinds of mobs to fight. The variety would spice up the leveling process, rather than "grinding" on just one mob type. While doing so, they simply must revive pre-75 leveling. Making mid-levels relevant will give value back to the armor weapons of those levels, instead of just AF3 or GTFO. Yet at the same time, weapons that level up with you, for example, might be a good introduction at this stage of FFXI.

Abyssea did EVERYTHING to fix mob variety, come on. Pre-Abyssea, when could you EXP on Bugards, Xzomits, Bats, Toads, Worms, demonic seashells? It was Colibri, Colibri and some more fucking Colibri. Abyssea 1, Colibri Monopoly 0.

The game is top heavy, middle levels will never be relevant in this game again. Once the game became established, mid levels became a bridge of grind towards endgame. Pre-Abyssea only like 7 pieces of AH gear mattered anyway (haub, SH, vermy, amemet+1, swift, rajas, pcharm) so people just gimped shit up to cap. AF3 or GTFO can be replaced by "wear AF to Maat, beat Maat, shelf job."

What are you looking for? Level 55 endgame content? Abyssea just made mid levels what any reasonable player already knew them to be - a waste of time. If you care about a job you don't need to clock in 60+ hrs in shitty parties to become good at it.

tl;dr: stockholm syndrome

[mdkuser]

Empyreal weapons will not survive the next level cap considering some easy to get level 90 ones are better than level 85 ones. Did we have to wait the 3rd abyssea to realise SE doesnt care about time invested/reward ?

[Colenzo]

Empyreal weapons will not survive the next level cap considering some easy to get level 90 ones are better than level 85 ones. Did we have to wait the 3rd abyssea to realise SE doesnt care about time invested/reward ?

what

[Nightmarelord]

what

Nigga said git like meeeeeeee

But to the other guys.. Did mid lvl jobs matter at all? and whats up with all u ppl talking about exp being hard @ 75? i use to get a million requests.. Guess it was bc i had a shiney weapon lol. i declined so many pts bc i was capped merits and exp, only time i even bothered was when i went to things and just repeated zerg-till-i-die get up and do it again.. exping was never hard, it was ANNOYING to constantly have to deal with those fucking birds.. Why? bc if you got a pick up pt, most likely they sucked and lacked real dmg. Only "ls / friend pts" actually went to other camps like MJSP and shit where we could actually cut loose.

TD;LR

FUCKING BIRDS STEALING FOOD was the only issue! lol.
Exping was easy, Abys made it even easier to do what was already mindless to begin with. It just added alot more perks.

[Panthera]

@ ronin sparthos

I respectfully disagree. Abyssea worsened the monotony of grinding. The “grind effect” is just killing the same thing, over and over and over again at the same camp. In Abyssea, there is only one type of mob per camp, and you’re penalized for fighting anything else unless you CFH. In some traditional camps, sometimes there were two mobs types; Bats and Beetles, Colibri and Wivres, or three even at Caedarva Mire, Imps, Flies and Jnuns, and the exp chain continued even if you switched mobs. If you did fight the mobs you mentioned, the exp is incidental to other Abyssea goals, just as the exp was incidental in Sky and Sea; atypical mobs that give less exp per hour than weaker foes, i.e., Toads are the new Colibri. It’s the same fundamental problem with FFXI at its worst; these sad little foes with no TP moves *at all*, no spells, don’t even double attack, and have precious little HP give exactly the same exp as Soulflayers, or Corses, or other mobs no sane party would exp on. Abyssea took one of FFXI’s worst problems and made it bad as it could possibly be.

This attitude about endgame being the end-all and be-all of FFXI misses the point of FFXI. It’s a pastime, about being there rather than getting there. Endgame perpetually extends the middle levels, with stronger versions of armor, weapons, spells and weapon skills we’ve been using from the get-go. Given this equality, either it’s all a good use of time, or a waste of it. That said, ask any Thief or Ranger how many weapons and accessories they had for target level syncs. There is not just 7 items of the Auction House, but a plethora of weapons and accessories across target level syncs that are good because they are good for their levels. Sadly, things like Federation Khukri, Darksteel Axe +1, Republic Subligar, (poor Toreador Ring…) and a host of others for all the jobs go unused, much to the lament of crafters, because SE decided to put players en-masse on a rocket sled through late levels because it sold their product, solving the problem of how to get to 99, yet making it harder to get to 50 or 75 in the first place. Again, AF3 or GTFO? What a pro philosophy.

What I want from 2011 is what has been mentioned several times since this thread’s inception; a move away from an Abyssea-centric game where people leech rather than do their jobs as they are meant to be played. I for one would not pay a monthly fee to be “chest bitch.” Leveling should indeed be accelerated, but while actually playing the jobs as intended. Make exp bonuses for certain mobs substantial rather than a trifling lagniappe. Put the challenge back into FFXI and make those challenges fun and rewarding. That’s what I want.

[Nightmarelord]

Hey now, we use to exp on flayers back in my day lol.

[Colenzo]

why would you ever

[Cantih]

Cash drops

[mallister]

instanced fucking content...

[ronin sparthos]

@ ronin sparthos

I respectfully disagree. Abyssea worsened the monotony of grinding. The “grind effect” is just killing the same thing, over and over and over again at the same camp. In Abyssea, there is only one type of mob per camp, and you’re penalized for fighting anything else unless you CFH. In some traditional camps, sometimes there were two mobs types; Bats and Beetles, Colibri and Wivres, or three even at Caedarva Mire, Imps, Flies and Jnuns, and the exp chain continued even if you switched mobs. If you did fight the mobs you mentioned, the exp is incidental to other Abyssea goals, just as the exp was incidental in Sky and Sea; atypical mobs that give less exp per hour than weaker foes, i.e., Toads are the new Colibri. It’s the same fundamental problem with FFXI at its worst; these sad little foes with no TP moves *at all*, no spells, don’t even double attack, and have precious little HP give exactly the same exp as Soulflayers, or Corses, or other mobs no sane party would exp on. Abyssea took one of FFXI’s worst problems and made it bad as it could possibly be.

You're only talking about alliance EXP. Grinding is part of the game and Abyssea gave you the chance to play around with far more mob types with little to no penalty. Getting bored of Murex? Go bash on some imps for a while, stop off at gargouilles and finish it up with some tigers.

Previously, picking to EXP on Soulflayers would be a huge disadvantage in comparison to easier targets and even with bonus EXP attached they'd still be avoided. In Abyssea? You can play in the sandbox until the cows come home. Hell, you can even mess around for some secondary rewards while you EXP at your leisure.

Being able to effectively EXP in smaller groups made things easier and is far more appealing to others than the previous status quo. I don't see how making LFP better is equal to ruining FFXI unless you enjoyed being screwed royally when your job wasn't a "fit" for a 6man PT.

This attitude about endgame being the end-all and be-all of FFXI misses the point of FFXI. It’s a pastime, about being there rather than getting there. Endgame perpetually extends the middle levels, with stronger versions of armor, weapons, spells and weapon skills we’ve been using from the get-go. Given this equality, either it’s all a good use of time, or a waste of it. That said, ask any Thief or Ranger how many weapons and accessories they had for target level syncs. There is not just 7 items of the Auction House, but a plethora of weapons and accessories across target level syncs that are good because they are good for their levels. Sadly, things like Federation Khukri, Darksteel Axe +1, Republic Subligar, (poor Toreador Ring…) and a host of others for all the jobs go unused, much to the lament of crafters, because SE decided to put players en-masse on a rocket sled through late levels because it sold their product, solving the problem of how to get to 99, yet making it harder to get to 50 or 75 in the first place. Again, AF3 or GTFO? What a pro philosophy.

Endgame being the "end-all, be-all" is two parts devs and one part playerbase. While SE did some things like level adjusted assaults and capped BCNMs, ultimately most of the premier content was always targeted towards the level cap.

Not gonna argue that the markets havent been affected by the level cap adjustments but what we gained is definitely better than what we lost. It's like someone at SE finally decided to stop making things in XI a full-time job and allowed the player some freedom with regards to playing the game. AF3 or GTFO is no different than our previous "Salvage gear or GTFO, Ebody or GTFO" standards except this time almost any job could do something in Abyssea without needing some ultra-specific setup to even start.

Lowbie EXP needs adjustments and post-Abyssea will be another turning point for FFXI but the game was saved from the fires of stagnation and for the first time in years on some servers you got an infusion of new interest in the game.

What I want from 2011 is what has been mentioned several times since this thread’s inception; a move away from an Abyssea-centric game where people leech rather than do their jobs as they are meant to be played. I for one would not pay a monthly fee to be “chest bitch.” Leveling should indeed be accelerated, but while actually playing the jobs as intended. Make exp bonuses for certain mobs substantial rather than a trifling lagniappe. Put the challenge back into FFXI and make those challenges fun and rewarding. That’s what I want.

People will always halfass or shortcut when shown a way to. This goes as far back as ammoburns, manaburns and deco weapon parties. You ultimately learn nothing levelling to the cap unless you want to. Clocking in 100 hours over the next guy doesn't make you better because you bashed your voke macro for the 1000th time.

Being good at a class in FFXI has so little to do with how often you play it and more about the research you do offline and on forums.

Challenge? All for it.

[Nightmarelord]

why would you ever

Kaiten > kasha > kaiten = its dead. and the drops.

[Velocy]

I personally like most of the changes in 2010. It gave the game a huge boost, especially for the long time players.

I might be repeating stuff already said, but for 2011 on my wishlist is:

- A new expansion. A boxed expansion would be nice, but I don't think this is in your plans. The Abyssea story leaves open quite some posibilitys for a story. Maybe we would be able to see some ToAU Abyssea Zones?

- For the Hero's expansions, I think it would be nice to have a few more Dominion Tacticans, to spread camps a bit more. Things like Bluffalos are always packed.

- Changes to the basic exp chain system (increase the time between xp chains, and the possible xp bonus), to make leveling lower jobs less pain. Outside of Abyssea all my support jobs were either leveled in Qufim Islands or Ronra[S]. Well, I got some MMM invites from Japanese players, but I don't really enjoy MMM.

- Possibilitys to upgrade hard earned equipent as: Nyzul Armor, Salvage Armor, Abjuration Armor. I could imagin this could be archieved with new Add-On Scenarios mentioned above.

- Some alternative way to obtain Dynamis Coins and Alexandrites (and no, please don't even think about Campaign). Both, Dynamis and Salvage are mostly dead, and its hard to find players to do this. It's really hard to gather coins for an upgrade.

[chichicha]

Recently... Would like to say this -.-;

Split Jaoshim and Horst away?!
Also get them some assistant?!

May be move ppl away from MH?! Like they did to Whitegate?!

Perhaps.... Take synergy out of port Jeuno!! SE took them out from Lower Jeuno before ... Do it already!!

Sorry to complaint about the lag!

[Gokulo]

So many exclamation marks

[onisama]

#1
No more atma areas! Please we want a place where our new gear matters. IE whats the point of having a relic when a gimp job will do sick dmg.

#2
A graphical update, I understand ps2 limitations and what not but just like other mmo's have done in the past (ie EVE online) create a second release for the game this way people with a good pc or 360/ps3 can enjoy the game and thus breathe new life to it. Hell it could even be an expansion and people will buy it! I know I would.

[onisama]

I just want to see relics return to their #1 position. All that effort. to be shit on by a easily obtained weapon? i dont think they "intended" letting relics be THAT shitty. even with the hidden ws dmg boost, relics went meant to be situational, they were meant for the toughest mfers to say hay, im #1. not im #4 (to all my weeping amano's i feel your pain!)

I agree 100%

[ArwynOfOdin]

Dear SE,

Please give Joachim and Horst a poison aura.

Thank you.

[Koyangi]

I just want to see relics return to their #1 position. All that effort. to be shit on by a easily obtained weapon? i dont think they "intended" letting relics be THAT shitty. even with the hidden ws dmg boost, relics went meant to be situational, they were meant for the toughest mfers to say hay, im #1. not im #4 (to all my weeping amano's i feel your pain!)

I agree 100%

What, so you can be a special little snowflake again? Not everyone can be lucky and have an LS slave Dynamis for them. It was kinda funny seeing Relics get Magian's Trials for upgraded levels, now the LS who slaved all the coins for you cant help you complete all the trials, to a certain extent maybe.

This doesnt apply to you lucky crafters and AH watchers who got rich smart, more power to you!

Only bad thing about 2010 is pre 75 didnt get any type of boost to help out leveling, lots of possible solutions have already been suggested though.

[Chimerawizard]

Dear SE,

Please give Joachim and Horst a poison aura.

Thank you.

Second this.

Or just add An npc in each home nation that does the same thing.

[Trix]

Also hoping for an announcement of a new full expansion. They must realize the potential benefits of truly new areas/mobs/music/mechanics. Just look at the success of ToAU and mediocrity of WoTG. Say what you will about how late we are in the game's life, an expansion is what's needed the most.