Test Server Findings

[TacoTaru]

As much as I dislike Campaign and most of the content that came because of WOTG, is it really fair to say that Campaign was a failure? For the first few years it was extraordinarily popular and battles were likely to be populated if not outright too full; I don't even recall it dying down until late 2009-early 2010. Granted it didn't quite the life that Dynamis, Limbus, or Salvage did, but it was highly popular for it's time.

[jimbobsonofgod]

As much as I dislike Campaign and most of the content that came because of WOTG, is it really fair to say that Campaign was a failure?

The reward system(treasure box) was a failure, needing to wait 5 real days to level up your medal was a failure, losing your medal was a failure, of the 100's of peices of gear that was added only a handful of them were situationally useful(most of them were only useful inside of campaign and I can only think of a couple of peices that actually stood the test of time) so I would consider the gear a failure. Exp gained wasn't on par with anything at the time. You couldn't skill up, I mean really the only thing it had going for it was that it wasn't besieged.
I honestly believed that people only did campaign because there was a lack of anything else to do that wasn't 3 year old content.

[Lyall]

Campaign was a failure in my mind because I never logged in and said "Alright! Time to go do Campaign!" It was always "Time to put up my flag to wait for a party invite and do Campaign in the meanwhile."

When your event is something to fill time and not actually an event, I'd say that's a pretty telling trait.

[Draylo]

The reward system(treasure box) was a failure, needing to wait 5 real days to level up your medal was a failure, losing your medal was a failure, of the 100's of peices of gear that was added only a handful of them were situationally useful(most of them were only useful inside of campaign and I can only think of a couple of peices that actually stood the test of time) so I would consider the gear a failure. Exp gained wasn't on par with anything at the time. You couldn't skill up, I mean really the only thing it had going for it was that it wasn't besieged.
I honestly believed that people only did campaign because there was a lack of anything else to do that wasn't 3 year old content.

Actually you could skill up but they removed it, it was in for a while though. You could gain a lot of exp, it was better than LFG and was fun/easy way to cap your jobs w/o getting merit party. A lot of the gear was not a failure... A good bulk of the iron ram set was awesome for enmity and MDB, including the lance. Some of the mage gear was cheap alternatives, like teal is now, same goes with the cobra gear. Rose strap is still used, patronus ring was a decent PDT ring. The list just goes on. Stop hating on it so hard.

[Byrthnoth]

Regardless, I noticed something weird the other day.

Normal confluxes and tele crystals lag me like a motherfucker. Test server confluxes and tele crystals do not. Using windower to view both... take from it what you will!

[Gokulo]

Normal confluxes and tele crystals lag me like a motherfucker. Test server confluxes and tele crystals do not. Using windower to view both... take from it what you will!

I'd hump them crazy if they really fix that.

[Radec]

Regardless, I noticed something weird the other day.

Normal confluxes and tele crystals lag me like a motherfucker. Test server confluxes and tele crystals do not. Using windower to view both... take from it what you will!

One of the best things I've heard from test server for sure.

[Byrthnoth]

Honestly, the more I think about it, the more I'm confident that they fixed it somehow. I dualbox still and can remember my mule (normal) lagging my main (test) when going near a tele crystal, but I know for a fact that I can run laps around them on my main (test) with my mule (normal) sitting in port jeuno at the guild stone without any issues.

[Nightfyre]

As much as I dislike Campaign and most of the content that came because of WOTG, is it really fair to say that Campaign was a failure? For the first few years it was extraordinarily popular and battles were likely to be populated if not outright too full; I don't even recall it dying down until late 2009-early 2010. Granted it didn't quite the life that Dynamis, Limbus, or Salvage did, but it was highly popular for it's time.

I think a lot of that was due to the penalty system with the medals. I know the only reason I ever bothered with Campaign after I got my AN gear was to maintain my rank, I could solo buffer/merits faster elsewhere. Fort EXP was mildly attractive too since you could afk and still get decent results if there were no beastment around. After nerfing that and skillups it became harder to justify doing Campaign because of how inconsistent fights were. If you had just enough people/NPCs present to keep from getting overwhelmed it was ok, better than some jobs could manage solo, but too many or too few and it was a pain.

[Fievel]

Regardless, I noticed something weird the other day.

Normal confluxes and tele crystals lag me like a motherfucker. Test server confluxes and tele crystals do not. Using windower to view both... take from it what you will!

Oh shit, good fucking god PLEASE tell me they fixed those.

[ronin sparthos]

Campaign was a failure in my mind because I never logged in and said "Alright! Time to go do Campaign!" It was always "Time to put up my flag to wait for a party invite and do Campaign in the meanwhile."

When your event is something to fill time and not actually an event, I'd say that's a pretty telling trait.

The only good thing about Campaign were the pre-JP midnight raids to shift influence in order to unlock stuff like Fiat Lux because it was one of the few times that you were immersed and actually felt like you were fighting in the Crystal War against the Beastmen.

WOTG was marketed as an opportunity to revisit some of the most eventful periods of Vana'diel but it seems like SE went through every possible step to make the experience one big flop.

First, Tavnazia was nowhere to be found though the loss of that city is one of the important pieces of the war. Completely unforgivable.

Secondly, the war was largely inconsequential for the player. You had some cutscene deaths and random high level mobs thrown around but again immersion was nowhere to be found. The entire Campaign system seemed more like a military exercise rather than the Crystal War unfolding across the theaters of Vana'diel.

The whole thing should have just been like WoWs Caverns of Time with maws linking you to different periods in time where you could do various raids or whatnot.

But that assumed SE wanted to put money into this game. *laugh track*

[Sagacious Sundi]

WOTG had the best CS's in the game and a really good story compared to TOAU which was mega rushed in the end, story wise.

To be fair, WotG turned into a stupid clip show at the end.

[Septimus]

The only good thing about Campaign were the pre-JP midnight raids to shift influence in order to unlock stuff like Fiat Lux because it was one of the few times that you were immersed and actually felt like you were fighting in the Crystal War against the Beastmen.

WOTG was marketed as an opportunity to revisit some of the most eventful periods of Vana'diel but it seems like SE went through every possible step to make the experience one big flop.

First, Tavnazia was nowhere to be found though the loss of that city is one of the important pieces of the war. Completely unforgivable.

Secondly, the war was largely inconsequential for the player. You had some cutscene deaths and random high level mobs thrown around but again immersion was nowhere to be found. The entire Campaign system seemed more like a military exercise rather than the Crystal War unfolding across the theaters of Vana'diel.

The whole thing should have just been like WoWs Caverns of Time with maws linking you to different periods in time where you could do various raids or whatnot.

But that assumed SE wanted to put money into this game. *laugh track*

The thing about Tavnazia is that if they actually had made a zone for it, at some point in the storyline the city had to be destroyed. (Spoilers.) People would have had shit-fitting conniptions if a zone were no longer able to be accessed because of your mission progress.

While I would have loved to have seen Tavnazia in the past (hey or maybe to help get it rebuilt in a future expansion), that inevitable shit-storm would not be worth it. And let's be honest, any Tavnazia zone that they could come up with would be instantly disappointing because the place has been turned into a legendary wonder-land in our heads. No reality could compete.

[Ophannus]

Campaign Ops rocked especialy if you were a crafter. With cooking 60 I could do spam Crystal Fist for on my subs and level them pretty easily getting a quick 600exp each time.

[dasva]

You know what I like about WoTG... using fortalices to afk cap my offensive skills over night after afk leeching my job lvls in abyssea

[Gwynplaine]

Am I the only person who doesn't get a boner for Tavnazia? It looks boring.

[ronin sparthos]

The thing about Tavnazia is that if they actually had made a zone for it, at some point in the storyline the city had to be destroyed. (Spoilers.) People would have had shit-fitting conniptions if a zone were no longer able to be accessed because of your mission progress.

While I would have loved to have seen Tavnazia in the past (hey or maybe to help get it rebuilt in a future expansion), that inevitable shit-storm would not be worth it. And let's be honest, any Tavnazia zone that they could come up with would be instantly disappointing because the place has been turned into a legendary wonder-land in our heads. No reality could compete.

Even if they didn't make Tavnazia an actual town complete with an AH and NPCs, SE could have weaved the area into a battlefield (a "neverending" Campaign zone) or raid (like a Dynamis or Salvage) within the confines of the time travel aspect they were using with WOTG. Afterall, maws can link you to just about anywhere as we've seen with WOTG and later Abyssea.

Instead, SE decided to deny the base Tavnazia because models and zone design take time and that time was better spent on FFXIV.

Edit: It's not even a personal boner about Tavnazia itself moreso the gesture of trying to capture a different time within Vana'diel which WOTG failed at. When you talk about a city throughout most of the vanilla/RoTZ/CoP missions and establish this place as a major plot point, you don't simply just sweep it under the rug when the time comes to create a time-travel centric expansion pack.

At least the soundtrack for WOTG didn't feel phoned in.

[Ophannus]

So how bout them Accuracy Bonus IV's for DRG 91-95? Eh?

[Byrthnoth]

https://www.bg-wiki.com/bg/Accuracy_Bonus

[pnavaja]

did anyone found where does the upgrade items for empyreans drop? voidwatch?