Grand Companies page update + Dzemael Darkhold

[Lucavi]

I suppose its too soon to see any mechanic changes this early. Seems par the course for a TOAU Assault mission or something. I get the same vibe from running through damp caves and whatnot.

[Kurokikaze]

Actually it looks like...

[Lucavi]

Hey now, I was at least trying to cross-reference something from the older game. That's just plan mean, Kuro, although the resemblance is obvious.

[Corrderio]

Pretty certain it's the Ahriman. The Ahriman stops right behind the skeleton and starts charging a TP move and then appears to release the red mist or w/e and everyone dies.

Okay I see it now. I was more focused on the skeleton and thought the Ahriman flew off screen.

[Kensaki]

Only one word for this. Bleh.

[Meko]

I don't understand the time limit idea. That's a shitty way to apply 'difficulty'.

EDIT: It's just another way SE tried to turn the boat around but instead, they went the wrong direction.

[Kurokikaze]

Should have time limits on bosses themselves through enrage timers. Not a lockout timer for the raid/dungeon itself. Thats just stupid.

[Cutriss]

I don't understand the time limit idea. That's a shitty way to apply 'difficulty'.

I don't think it's applying difficulty, I think it's there to prevent scrubshells from clogging up the instances since they're too cheap to run enough servers to handle all the instances.

The *better* course of action would be to have instance servers that load content dynamically, that way you don't waste capacity on shit that people aren't doing and you can more easily throw up new servers to add capacity. This way, as people migrate from different kinds of content, you don't have to set up new servers - it's just new data on the same servers.

[Arximiro]

I don't understand the time limit idea. That's a shitty way to apply 'difficulty'.

EDIT: It's just another way SE tried to turn the boat around but instead, they went the wrong direction.

What type of difficulty would you prefer? A hard boss that does random shit that's hard to deal with, random mob spawns to catch you off guard, a boss with a ridiculously powerful AOE + hate reset? What is a good way to apply difficulty? You could make a overly complex boss with things that must be incapacitated to win and/or survive. No matter what they do it will always be easy for people who know the strategy and can work as a cohesive unit. A time limit is just as shitty as most other ways of applying difficulty imo. The one thing I can see being difficult is a battle where multiple people have to time things just right to succeed or advance. That difficulty is only because of human error as well. I guess to each their own when it comes to what is difficult.

Seeing men in public wearing flip-flops and not punching them in the face is difficult to me, for example.

[Spira]

The video looks really nice. The way they're handling raids in FFXIV is nice, to be honest.. if its gonna have CS and all..
Gotten me rather hyped up about 1.18 tho I really think I need to get a new pc to enjoy XIV, if ever.

New music is nice.. one of the tracks seems to be 14 (in the Alpha rip), tho it could have been modified.. and the other is a new track, which is like a more intense battle version..

I chuckled when All-Seeing Eye wiped the party XD.. the skeleton's name is Hellspawned Warrior, so I'm guessing the Eye is the boss in that fight. and the other bosses look cool too...

[Hyan]

I don't understand the time limit idea. That's a shitty way to apply 'difficulty'.

Sometimes it sounds like none of you have played XI.

Timelimits are brilliant for applying difficulty. You make an event with timelimit and multiple objectives, and as the result:

It's not about "winning" or "losing" as much as it is about being skilled and efficient. The better you are the more objectives you clear. But if you suck you can still accomplish something, although not as much as the skilled players. You can prioritize.

But hurrdurr not the normal way of doing things must criticize and bitch derpherp. Don't let me get in the way.

[Meko]

Making the instance TIMED is fucking stupid, period. Let's say its 1 hour and oh, I don't know, your real life takes control. You have a kid or maybe two kids and you have to go deal with one for whatever reason leaving your party short handed. Now, they must replace you because you are the healer or tank or whatever. Whilst time ticks, you seek for another member to fulfill the role of the person you lost. Maybe you don't even have kids but it's storming where you live and you lose power etc. That's why time limits suck. Not to mention, it adds a visual 'difficulty' to the dungeon. You see the time ticking and it pushes you to rush through the content etc.

Of course, this is all hypothetical as we don't know any of the specifics and maybe it won't be an issue at all but I don't see any upside to it.

Clearly you've never lived in Florida where it's 95 degrees by 8 AM. Flip-flops are a must.

[Shuichi]

Having a time limit is neither good nor bad. It's just a component of the dungeon that you must learn to deal with. Salvage was hella fun. It had a time limit. I guess the real question is what's the cool down between visits to the dungeon?

[Grey Jorildyn]

The video does a great job promoting this instance. I just hope it's as cool to play. Liking the new UI a lot but that action bar really needs to be expanded to show all three bars. At this point though, most should be using macros, however not being able to actively peek at recast times for 2nd/3rd bar abilities is quite annoying.

[Spider-Dan]

Making the instance TIMED is fucking stupid, period. Let's say its 1 hour and oh, I don't know, your real life takes control. You have a kid or maybe two kids and you have to go deal with one for whatever reason leaving your party short handed. Now, they must replace you because you are the healer or tank or whatever.

So basically, you're proposing that instances be untimed (and therefore, making other people wait indefinitely during crowded times) because some people cannot properly plan ahead?

Here is something that is not new to MMOs: well-laid plans being screwed over because a party member has to leave. If you were expecting these new instances to somehow nullify an inherent problem with MMOs, well...

[Meko]

Well no but other games pull it off without a hitch. Maybe I'm just too far outside the box on this one.

[Hyan]

Hoping that the normal mobs serve a purpose outside slowing you down, but I'm not optimistic about it.

[Lucavi]

So basically, you're proposing that instances be untimed (and therefore, making other people wait indefinitely during crowded times) because some people cannot properly plan ahead?

Here is something that is not new to MMOs: well-laid plans being screwed over because a party member has to leave. If you were expecting these new instances to somehow nullify an inherent problem with MMOs, well...

Not disagreeing, yet other games handle it better than this. We don't even know if you'll be able to immediately re-do the instance again (probably not), but with SE's track record and their one-track-mind approach to designing their encounters, this will be a once-a-week event that you cannot invite other people to if someone drops out, so "if" the above happens, these individuals are screwed for the week.

Plans go awry. Everyone knows that, but a good company minimizes the impact that those botched plans have on the player. A good company lets the difficulty come solely from the encounters themselves or the layout of the dungeon, not from outside factors that just so happen to negatively impact the player's progression within. That way, players can say that the dungeon was challenging because the dungeon was difficult, not because they finally managed to make it through after all the stars aligned and everything worked out. SE does not have a good track record of doing that. Hell, most XI players would chalk it up to some sort of misguided "artificial challenge" or some stupid purist thinking.

"That's what makes SE games so good, guys! In other games, when someone leaves you can pick up another player and finish it! Here, we're screwed for the week, so you gotta do everything perfect the first time. That's a REAL man's challenge!"

@Hyan: you mean the trash? Well if there's a time limit, maybe they'll randomly give time extensions, or maybe -not- randomly, but set trash mobs doing it. Maybe they'll have a low chance to drop items or armor. Maybe it'll simply function exactly like dynamis. I dunno. One can hope for some advancement nearly a decade later, that's for sure

[Ardrial]

So basically, you're proposing that instances be untimed (and therefore, making other people wait indefinitely during crowded times) because some people cannot properly plan ahead?

Here is something that is not new to MMOs: well-laid plans being screwed over because a party member has to leave. If you were expecting these new instances to somehow nullify an inherent problem with MMOs, well...

WoW and Rift does instances without time limits. I don't see why a time limit is required either other than to be cheap because they don't want to put enough money up for a proper instance server.

(I only chose those two games because they are the only other mmo's i've played.)

[Kaeko]

purple marker on the eye.