Dev Tracker

[Khamsin]

Anyone who complains about the 1% drop rates on VW should take a moment to remember what it was like trying get drops like that on HNMs that you had to claim faster than other LSes, and if it dropped there were 17 other people who wanted the item as much as you.

Voidwatch has done several things, first off, a wide variety of jobs are not only useful but necessary to do VW, so instead of coming the same job every time to VW you have options.

Second, because you aren't counter lotting people there is 0 downside to going 18/18 on trying to kill a VWNM, even if you don't need that many.

Finally, because you don't have to counter lot people that dramatically decreases the time it takes to get your item. Toss in the fact that doing the runs is self sustaining with the crour rewards and gil drops that give you some pocket change, and the rare scroll or piece of gear that fills your pockets right up, and I see absolutely 0 issue with Voidwatch.

If you were in the right LS, there would never be a situation where you're up for an item against 17 other people. Sensible LSs had job priorities and points, so that the new WHM couldn't jack your active WAR's ridill. Even the BLM with a few more points than you couldn't jack your ridill. And ridill (or anything else) wasn't 1%.

Only silly LSs let WHMs get Novios or SAMs get Ninurta's Sashes.

Of course, these days, with Abyssea, nobody has only 1 or 2 jobs anymore and it takes a day or two to level a new one to cap, anyways.

And, counter to the point I was just making, I've been trying for Akvan's body for some time now, despite not having a WHM. I just want Heka for a cure piece on RDM and SCH, and according to the LS rules of yore, I'd never get one until all the LS WHMs had one. That might make VW's distribution seem like a good thing, until you realize that as many times as I've fought Akvan, by now, all the LS WHMs and their mules would have one.

[Lordender]

Completely baffles me that SE still doesn't understand the problem with VW, not being able to pass loot to someone because of a double is so freaking stupid. Could SE not make VW rare/ex loot just tradeable to people who were in the alliance at the kill kind of like what Blizzard did with the bind on pickup gear inside of raids?

[hexagram23]

they're buffing your great sword WS? how is that trolling?

Because no one asked for a GS boost. We'll take what we can get obviously. But GS is fine, we have Torcleaver. People have been asking for a better Scythe WS since Insurgency. And there's literally a "Please make Entropy do more damage!" thread with 100+ replies in the official forum. No one asked about it's MP stealing aspect.

[Nameless]

I have a real feeling that when ftp is carried to all hits, accuracy bonus is also carried to all hits. So if that means not having to worry about accuracy when gearing toward this with slight sacrifice to ftp, I am fine with that. Gorget and belt and moonshade will likely be able to bring it to 1.0 at the least if they nerf it to 0.75.

[vagus]

With the release of Abyssea, the need for large LS's disappeared. Casual players could participate and obtain top tier items. VW is in a way back to the old ways of requiring a large group. I love doing events with large groups. Anyone who has lead a HNM LS prior to abyssea will understand the stress / drama / bullshit that comes with DKP. VW lotting isn't perfect. It would be nice if SE did allow people to transfer items to the pool similar to abyssea. If SE does make VW the only way to obtain items, then i can understand mass complaining. However it isn't and anyone can participate. I hope SE does give some kind of "CoP" type reward for completing all the quests for VW.

Bst lovers should consider themselves lucky that it's so powerful nowadays. Prior to Abyssea, it was almost useless. With how easy it is to get bst to 95 and obtain close to 1M every day, I don't blame people for leveling bst. I would to if i wasn't a bst fan. If SE really wants to cater to the true bst fans, fix the emp/mythic/relic axe to add some kidn of benefit to the pet or add some type of charm skill. Ie. higher skill = stronger pet. Lower skill = pet / jugpets uncharms. Lolz.

[hexagram23]

Maybe I'm paranoid but I think the #1 reason SE doesn't want to change VW's drop system is because currently the way it's set up it wastes a lot of your time. With drops going to the same person, no trading etc. And I doubt SE will come out and say "we just wanted to make a time sink", so they give these nonsensical reasons.

I like VW in general but I'm not sure how wise it was to create an event for large groups 9ish years into a game's life, directly after Abyssea killed off the need for them. They need to focus on more low man stuff IMO.

[ronin sparthos]

They could have simply created a point system with some amazing reward (make it glow for added obsession) tied to having an assload of points and that would have successfully created a bottleneck sufficient enough to work on future version updates. If they wanted to make it even more attractive to people, Heavy Metal could also be purchasable with these points and thus turn what is pretty much an unpopular event into something everyone would benefit from.

Something like:
Dominion style Armor (w/augments) - Low
Some useful KI - Low
Heavy Metal - Low
Dominion style Weapon (w/augments) - Medium
Heavy Metal Pouch - Medium
Rare Gear 1 - High
Glowstick weapon 1 - Extremely High
Glowstick armor 1 - Extremely High
Mobs HQ drop - Extremely High
??? Badass set 1 - Extremely High (<< here's where you squeeze out the grind)

Those ores and logs wouldn't be half as bad if you know beating a few Pil would get you that much closer to finishing the 1500 plates or getting to another goal. The low drop Toci's wouldn't even be so bad if you had a better carrot on that stick to keep you going. But nope, SE rather lay on the stupidity thick and blame backlash from players just not 'understanding'.

[Yugl]

Actually, SE explicitly said they are they making a time sink. More broadly, they said their new method is to make newer content a bitch to do and obtain gear from. Gradually, they will increase the drop rates though. That way, they can control the degree to which players get tired of an event.

[Septimus]

Actually, SE explicitly said they are they making a time sink. More broadly, they said their new method is to make newer content a bitch to do and obtain gear from. Gradually, they will increase the drop rates though. That way, they can control the degree to which players get tired of an event.

The problem with this is why do we have any incentive to do the event at all knowing that the drop rate is ass and that it might be better in the future? I think that they wildly overestimate the power of the Skinner Box.

[Yugl]

Of course. I was referring to the hexa's post where he says SE won't come out and say they're making a time sink. They have and do so without shame!

[Damane]

voidwatch is just ass... all this voidwatch fights and still didnt get one rare/ex body ¬.¬. Its frustrateing and bringing me to the point where I actually just will say "fuck it" and let the event be as it is and not care anymore for it.

[Isiolia]

Maybe I'm paranoid but I think the #1 reason SE doesn't want to change VW's drop system is because currently the way it's set up it wastes a lot of your time. With drops going to the same person, no trading etc. And I doubt SE will come out and say "we just wanted to make a time sink", so they give these nonsensical reasons.

While the timesink aspect is probably something they do like about the design, I think the biggest reason they're refusing to change it is because they want to completely lock out the ability to sell drops. Maybe they've had complaints over the years of shells monopolizing HNMs for profit, and this is their way of rectifying it.

[Lordender]

Regardless of how great or stupid the content is, its pretty obvious lots of people dislike VW's loot system. People have voiced their concerns on the forums for months now only to be promised with "Later tiers will have better drop rates, stay tuned!" we all know how SE promises pan out. I am surprised not more people are speaking with their $$ and just canceling rather than doing something people clearly don't like or partially don't like because of how the loot system is handled.

The interview where one of the dev's hinted that Abyssea was a mistake just goes to show you they're so out of touch with reality when it comes to XI it makes you wonder why people continue to support the game when its viewed as the best thing thats ever happened to the game from the players PoV.

[Draginhikari]

Regardless of how great or stupid the content is, its pretty obvious lots of people dislike VW's loot system. People have voiced their concerns on the forums for months now only to be promised with "Later tiers will have better drop rates, stay tuned!" we all know how SE promises pan out. I am surprised not more people are speaking with their $$ and just canceling rather than doing something people clearly don't like or partially don't like because of how the loot system is handled.

The interview where one of the dev's hinted that Abyssea was a mistake just goes to show you they're so out of touch with reality when it comes to XI it makes you wonder why people continue to support the game when its viewed as the best thing thats ever happened to the game from the players PoV.

It's more or less like anything else. If someone quits because of Voidwatch then there really wasn't much else in the game to keep them paying. The reality is as much as Voidwatch is flawed for most people it's not enough for them to quit the game simply because Voidwatch isn't the end all for most people. If there is still enough for people to not depend on Voidwatch only so many are going to quit over it.

As far as the opinion on Abyssea, I did liked Abyssea but I don't necessarily see it as the best thing that ever happened because that's a pretty subjective opinion. I heard more people who quit over Abyssea then who quit over VW to be honest. The system wasn't perfect and did create some problems as well as well as quite a few benefits. Though I don't necessarily agree with all the points made in that interview, it pretty much is what it is.

[Isiolia]

The interview where one of the dev's hinted that Abyssea was a mistake just goes to show you they're so out of touch with reality when it comes to XI it makes you wonder why people continue to support the game when its viewed as the best thing thats ever happened to the game from the players PoV.

Even when Abyssea n' all was just hitting, people realized it wasn't good for certain aspects of the game. Realistically, the cap increase and the massive shakeup of gear created a boatload of work to keep non-Abyssea FFXI relevant. How it strikes me is that some of the team is bitter about having to do the revamp "cleanup" work. Which could make sense if they were counting on having a larger team to do it, and then people got moved to XIV or something.

[Yugl]

Hopefully the new packs focus on abilities and spells. Or traits!

[Septimus]

Of course. I was referring to the hexa's post where he says SE won't come out and say they're making a time sink. They have and do so without shame!

But as Lordender pointed out, they did pretty much admit that they intentionally made the drop rates ass and are going to make future tiers better. If they acknowledge that their Skinner Box is bad even by their standards, what motivation do any of us have to press the button?

It's more or less like anything else. If someone quits because of Voidwatch then there really wasn't much else in the game to keep them paying. The reality is as much as Voidwatch is flawed for most people it's not enough for them to quit the game simply because Voidwatch isn't the end all for most people. If there is still enough for people to not depend on Voidwatch only so many are going to quit over it.

As far as the opinion on Abyssea, I did liked Abyssea but I don't necessarily see it as the best thing that ever happened because that's a pretty subjective opinion. I heard more people who quit over Abyssea then who quit over VW to be honest. The system wasn't perfect and did create some problems as well as well as quite a few benefits. Though I don't necessarily agree with all the points made in that interview, it pretty much is what it is.

Yeah, some people did quit over Abyssea, but a lot more either joined or didn't quit because of it. People (especially on the official forums) who talk about how Abyssea ruined the game seem to forget that in 2009 the game was bleeding players. The player base saw every little effort being put into the game, and people slowly started getting fed up with it since there didn't appear to be a future. They announced the level cap and new zones with Abyssea and it revitalized interest in the game, a lot of old players came back as a result. Was Abyssea perfect? No. But it was a hell of a lot better than anything in FFXI that proceeded it.

I think that we aren't going to hear people rage quit over Voidwatch, instead we will notice a lot of players just quietly leave. And it won't be solely the fault of Voidwatch, it is going to be the same thing as 2009- people aren't going to see a future for the game between a Dev Team that refuses to learn from its mistakes and a corporate structure that thinks that it is fine to starve a profitable game to death with a skeleton crew. Where are we going to be in a year from now? Fighting mobs for low-drop rate items in he same zones we have been in for 9 years? Are we ever going to have a real box expansion with completely new zones, new characters, and new missions? I think that we all know the answer.

[Alkimi]

And, counter to the point I was just making, I've been trying for Akvan's body for some time now, despite not having a WHM. I just want Heka for a cure piece on RDM and SCH, and according to the LS rules of yore, I'd never get one until all the LS WHMs had one. That might make VW's distribution seem like a good thing, until you realize that as many times as I've fought Akvan, by now, all the LS WHMs and their mules would have one.

If anything Heka's body is far more useful for other jobs than it is for WHM.

[Septimus]

News everyone!

I just wanted to warp in here and let you know that we are thinking about lowering the casting time for dark magic. On top of that, we are also looking into DRK's magic usage.

Great ideas so far! Keep the feedback coming. ^_^

At least they are starting to understand the underlying problem with DRKs casting magic.

[arus2001]

I can see them giving DRK Fast Cast II or an Elemental Celerity equivalent to Dark Magic and calling it a day. The real underlying issue is just that melee and magic doesn't play nice together, both in delays incurred and it usually being an either/or choice in equipment as well as being swap heavy. Granted, DRKs don't have it nearly as bad as RDMs do when it comes to the latter, but they've also got the JAs/Traits and D120+ weapons to avoid the same pitfall. DRK's actual casting gear isn't super terrible, either. You've just got some who think they should be nuking as hard as a BLM or not at all while swinging as hard as a WAR. These people will never be happy.

Conceptually, I'm okay with Entropy and welcome it even if isn't DRK's hardest hitting scythe WS. I still say Insurgency should be given the crit chance, though. Or at the very least, made competitive with Resolution. Utility isn't a bad thing, SE just does a bad job of making us want to exercise it.