The FINAL FANTASY XI Team Answers Your Questions! (02/04/2011)

[Francisco]

Getting level 60 with full artifact armor was hard and a lot of work in 2003.
Getting full sky / abjuration sets was hard and a lot of work in 2004-2005.
Spamming the same old content and not quitting was hard and a lot of work in 2006.
Getting full salvage gear was hard and a lot of work in 2007-2008.
Spamming the same old content and not quitting was hard and a lot of work in 2009.
Reading about how everyone's old gear was "hard and a lot of work to get" is hard and a lot of work in 2010-2011.

[Celebrindor]

Q: Are there any plans to provide a means to upgrade equipment from Salvage, Einherjar, Nyzul, and so forth? I put a great deal of effort into obtaining these items, but these days they feel underpowered.

A: Yes. Future updates will introduce not only a host of new items, but also new upgrade possibilities for existing weapons and armor. Methods including but not limited to Trial of the Magians are in the works, and we think you'll enjoy what we have in store.

I'm flat out going to say told you so. After how many posts made by myself and others regarding this in the past that were shot down. So. Ha.

[Byrthnoth]

They said "einherjar" which I initialy assumed would mean Valhalla, V.fork and Hofud. That's still a bit surprising though because those were already very niche items. Ichor gear I don't see happening because they're accessories. Since I'm doubting those two, then all that's left is cursed gear. They also said "and so forth" so I suppose everything is till open.

It is either Ichor gear or Ichor gear and Abjurations. I doubt V-fork/Hofud/etc will get any love. If they upgrade Abjurations, they'd have to upgrade all Abjurations (as the ones from kings drop there and it doesn't make sense to upgrade partial sets).

[orson]

If they require stuff like collect 50 nidhogg scales I'm going to murder someone. Also if they are going to include king, WoTG NMs, einherjar, and on a lesser note sky gear they better lower respawn/entry timers and raise the drop rates on base gear and pop items. As it stands now I don't think people are willing to go back to a bot based, stand around and wait to play kind of game.

[Gergall]

Kyte / Priran

ty for explanation.

[Jeryhn]

That ToAU upgraded gear is going to piss off a few people. I know some that dumped their pieces to make room for the better abyssea gears.

Porter moogles. All that gear could be reduced to taking up exactly one inventory slot.

[Francisco]

Porter moogles

...weren't around when abyssea first came out. Still dumb as fuck to toss something like Salvage gear.

[Kaisha]

Just posting to say that I'm quite enjoying these "Answer your Questions" snips, hope this is a permanent trend for both XI/XIV and not just a 'for the time being' thing. I'm actually starting to like what they're planning for the MMO now (revisiting older content and making it more approachable).

[Darkyrm]

That ToAU upgraded gear is going to piss off a few people. I know some that dumped their pieces to make room for the better abyssea gears.

Was going to reply but was allready beaten...

Anyone that worked their asses off for Salvage gear, only to toss it later once better gear became available while not knowing the future of FFXI from level 90 up, is absolutely retarded. Just sayin'.

Im very happy this finally has been confirmed and I hope seeing how Empyrean set stats make a lot of sense not like your tipical WTF pieces even in salvage gear (ie lol skadi head) they upgrade them nicely.

[GreenKnux]

Could someone PLEASE ask about Mythic weapons and Alexandrite? Seriously... this needs to change!

[Karbuncle]

Could someone PLEASE ask about Mythic weapons and Alexandrite? Seriously... this needs to change!

Magian Moogle-ing is clearly their fix for Alexandrite supply.

If its good it forces people back into the hell of Salvage, Which They'll probably buff to suit level 99 players so its still as broom-rape as ever :D

[Hanyoko]

I've often speculated about them using the east portal on boss floor to take you to another room/floor/roof which has additional content. Usually have 20+ min leftover anymore and would be nice to have something new in there... as long as its not more voodoo stuff like zhayolm pop methods.

[Michelob]

I'm flat out going to say told you so. After how many posts made by myself and others regarding this in the past that were shot down. So. Ha.

In my opinion anyone who really thought that they weren't going to upgrade salvage gear was pretty naive.

[Jeryhn]

In my opinion anyone who really thought that they weren't going to upgrade salvage gear was pretty naive.

Not really, considering the only previously-existing equipment that they've ever offered for upgrade beyond their base level and strength have been relic and mythic weapons. I'd say it was a perfectly reasonable assumption that they had no plans for Salvage upgrades until very recently when players started requesting that the gear that took them years to get not be completely obsoleted overnight via Abyssea.

In fact, the only reason they're considering it now is because now they're actually listening to players, when for several years this wasn't the case at all. And the only reason for that is because of the absolute fail that was FFXIV.

[LinktheDeme]

Not really, considering the only previously-existing equipment that they've ever offered for upgrade beyond their base level and strength have been relic and mythic weapons. I'd say it was a perfectly reasonable assumption that they had no plans for Salvage upgrades until very recently when players started requesting that the gear that took them years to get not be completely obsoleted overnight via Abyssea.

In fact, the only reason they're considering it now is because now they're actually listening to players, when for several years this wasn't the case at all. And the only reason for that is because of the absolute fail that was FFXIV.

I normally don't like doing this, but this ^ exactly

[Isiolia]

Pretty sure there were a fair number of people (including myself) who complained about the lack of amor upgrades, or much else for that matter, back when the cap rose.

I think it's also a lot less that they care about people's comments like that, and a lot more that they're realizing Abyssea will only carry the game so long, and as-is it renders nearly everything else in the game nigh irrelevant. Great in the short term, but not enough to keep people playing for years to come.

That, or they intentionally put it off because it serves to string us along with minimal additional content. We got boatloads of stuff to pursue out of relatively few zones with Abyssea, and now they can turn around and create a whole new thing to grind. If there were multiple paths to pick last year, we'd have done whatever had the best end result, skipping the rest. Great for players, not so great for developers trying to keep us paying our subscription fees.

[Michelob]

Not really, considering the only previously-existing equipment that they've ever offered for upgrade beyond their base level and strength have been relic and mythic weapons. I'd say it was a perfectly reasonable assumption that they had no plans for Salvage upgrades until very recently when players started requesting that the gear that took them years to get not be completely obsoleted overnight via Abyssea.

In fact, the only reason they're considering it now is because now they're actually listening to players, when for several years this wasn't the case at all. And the only reason for that is because of the absolute fail that was FFXIV.

Artifact and relic armor never got upgrades? Besides, the main reason why it was so obvious that salvage gear was getting upgrades was not because "zomg I spent so much time and effort making this gear" it was more because salvage is simply not worth doing anymore and rather than make some new source of alexandrite or some new event that probably costs them a lot more resources to make, wouldn't it be easier to just redo some of the older (and extremely popular) events that would give them another few years of playability at a much cheaper cost of developement? From the standpoint of efficiency and moneymaking for the SE, it was a no-brainer.

[HadesCoops]

I don't even care if they don't return salvage stuff to the king of all armour, but at least with it being competitive with empyrean +2 stuff I might not feel I wasted tens of millions of gil on it.

I approve.

[Jeryhn]

Artifact and relic armor never got upgrades?

Well, technically yes, but for both of these upgrades, completely new events were created in order to offer their drops, and they are not trial-related.

Besides, the main reason why it was so obvious that salvage gear was getting upgrades was not because "zomg I spent so much time and effort making this gear" it was more because salvage is simply not worth doing anymore and rather than make some new source of alexandrite or some new event that probably costs them a lot more resources to make, wouldn't it be easier to just redo some of the older (and extremely popular) events that would give them another few years of playability at a much cheaper cost of developement? From the standpoint of efficiency and moneymaking for the SE, it was a no-brainer.

Simply allowing Alexandrite to drop from any mob in Salvage and in Nyzul Isle (or even just NMs/Ramparts/Gears), or to drop pouches from higher-tier ZNMs or ToAU beastkings, or some other system similar to allowing Dynamis currency drops in Campaign (such as Besieged), would also be suitable methods to increasing Alexandrite availability. As it stands, any "newfound" interest in Salvage is going to be in the form of mindless "kill 100 Poroggo Madames" trials in an effort to upgrade individual pieces of Salvage gear that will still likely be cockblocked by a five-trial limit maximum, which won't really revitalize Salvage or Alexandrite availability.

[fredjanx]

What I hated about salvage was that the pieces were incredible marginal increases.
See: Morrigan's Slops and Mahatma Slops