Comments from the Devs

[Lucavi]

So this whole crystal shortage crisis is derived all from alpha. Where the primary focus was not content, but stress testing. Where neither Alchemist or Culinarian existed. That is... genius.

Lololololol.

[Alkimi]

So this whole crystal shortage crisis is derived all from alpha. Where the primary focus was not content, but stress testing. Where neither Alchemist or Culinarian existed. That is... genius.

Probably partly derived from the fact that mobs didn't drop shards in alpha like in 1.0, they could only be gathered. Whether this changes we'll see I guess but sending out retainers would be a compromise.

[Charismatic]

Probably partly derived from the fact that mobs didn't drop shards in alpha like in 1.0

Hope you only mean at the same rate... 'cause I do recall some mobs dropping them.
Others didn't seem to or maybe the drop rate is just that low..?

[Eagleheart]

Yoshi P needs to bring the beta action soon to end this circular firing squad cycle. o.o;

[Sephiroth]

People just think that getting nothing is better than getting something you don't "want". Mining in V1 is a good example of why this isn't better. You'd go out for cobalt ore but sometimes you'd hit iron ore instead of cobalt. The thing here is to make a cobalt ingot you needed cobalt ore and iron ore, so hitting iron wasn't terrible. In ARR you will have to separately go out and farm cobalt and then iron. Instead of getting your iron as a side effect of missing cobalt you're now having to do twice the work all because people think getting nothing is better than getting iron. These are the same people who thought getting rid of gathering fatigue would be awesome so they can gather for 10 hours at 1 item per drop instead of gathering for 2 hours at 3-5 items per drop. People just don't think of the consequences of changes.

[Nadrojj]

It's not a lack of information that's the problem here. It's someone saying, just like on the official forums, that if you have a 40% chance at getting something, that's luck. But if it's 75%, luck is no longer involved. Complete stupidity, and it's not like it's limited just to this topic.

Maybe they don't understand percentages unless it's plastered on their screen. Or they can't put "no item" and "trash item" in the same box in their mind. Whatever it is, it's illogical.

I don't think people are arguing the RNG issue, more the fact that in ARR if I didn't want a crow's feather I stood 0 percent chance of getting one. If my success percentage of getting an ash log was 87, I understand there is still a chance of getting nothing, but do you know what I won't get? A crow's feather. I'm glad they took the slider mini game out, makes gathering materials much quicker.

[Stromgarde]

Regarding crystals... In the alpha, they dropped only from elemental type monsters, as well as from harvesting. My line of thinking is that they may be changing to a FFXI-similar system of crystal drops, with it being related to the day of the week rather than elemental affinity of a given mob. The reason for normal mobs not dropping crystals in alpha could then be attributed to the complete non-implementation of time passing. Anyway, that's just my line of thinking on the matter. Speculation is speculation.

[Falisa]

I'm reminded of how much people over-speculate a game while waiting for it to launch.

[Stromgarde]

I don't disagree, but it's not like we have anything better to do.

[Lucavi]

I'm reminded of how much people over-speculate a game while waiting for it to launch.

Its not just while waiting; its any game on the planet that has people interested in it, anywhere. Check any forum, any thread, any website.

If people aren't talking about it, its probably a shitty, dead game, buried amongst rubble. Like The Matrix Online. Nobody talks about that.

[Alkar]

First of all, Alkar has been debating me on RNG. Aside from that, I don't really care or have a preference on the chance at getting something other than what you're aiming (literally) for. I'm not against 1-item-only gathering. But I'm curious - you guys must really hate how when you kill things, much of the time the drops are useless. Do you have a problem with gathering, but not battle?

Not that it's important; the reason I've continued to reply has been illogical statements like "no luck involved" for ARR's gathering. To which the person has not been summarily laughed down by the majority.

I'm talking about RNG when it comes to getting the item I want, not RNG of getting anything at all because that's present in both systems. However in ARR with good gear you have 80% chance of getting stuff (and it WILL be the item you want) and this can go up to 95% if you know what you're doing.
You're simply missing the point entirely but I'm not surprised.

[Lucavi]

He's been missing point after point these last few pages. Ah well.

[Churchill]

lol

[Churchill]

inc soliloquy

[Lucavi]

You're kinda cute, Coyo. "Oh Lucavi, you bad bad man, you~"

[Alkar]

My brain isn't the one failing here, I think I've made my point clear enough.
And no, I'm not overspeculating, I'm talking about facts as they are right now. Obviously I don't know what beta will bring but that's not the point of this discussion.

[Elcura]

Inc deletion

though I hope it ain't so, cause this is fun

[Churchill]

The conversation was only about alpha shards/gathering for those of us that wanted a few weeks in 1.0 and a few weeks of alpha to be relevant factors when we weigh in on forums.

You may have said, "In alpha..." which is ridiculous for reasons already pointed out. No one else was referring to alpha.

[Alkar]

Yeah sure, because when we talk about system mechanics in 2.0 we have a lot of other tools for comparison right? You can speculate about retail if you want but then don't turn around and say that others are overspeculating lol.

[Churchill]

Are you addressing me because then Rata can do his woosh.