New Vanafest incoming.

[Damane]

But then you have all this new content with the idea of zero reward, and a low low low % chance of a drop. Backwards much? Or just poor design due to not spending enough time/money looking at it?

I think the design was intended, i really dont believe that the dev team is so out of touch with the playerbase, considering how abyssea was and I dont think that all of the Dev team went over to FFXIV, ergo the current design is INTENDED and working properly as they (dev team/producer) want it to be. This only indicates to me that they are pritty much done with this game.

[Genosync]

Empyreans are the worst, because they are simple enough to be attainable for a primarily solo player like me*, but not so much so that the potential benefit of a given Empyrean outweighs the opportunity cost.

I mean, I can solo Briareus and Sobek really easily, but good fucking lord solo KIs + Briareus #35 is not as empowering a feeling as solo KIs + Briareus #3, mostly because around #15 you start asking yourself "what am I actually going to use this fucking thing for?", and subsequently don't do anything with it for like two weeks.


Ugh.





*"primarily" does not quite cover it; Stat Moogle this year said I had something like 120,000 battles fought and about 750 parties and 250 alliances joined total since I made Scaevola in the spring of 2005.

enjoy hitting 90 and then never touching it again, making it pretty mediocre at any rate. do the sword if you do either at this point, but based off what you said I doubt you'd ever get 1500 metal plates (not like I'm going to either, srsly). yet another topic that I've ranted about before.

[Michelob]

Empyreans are the worst, because they are simple enough to be attainable for a primarily solo player like me*, but not so much so that the potential benefit of a given Empyrean outweighs the opportunity cost.

I mean, I can solo Briareus and Sobek really easily, but good fucking lord solo KIs + Briareus #35 is not as empowering a feeling as solo KIs + Briareus #3, mostly because around #15 you start asking yourself "what am I actually going to use this fucking thing for?", and subsequently don't do anything with it for like two weeks.


Ugh.





*"primarily" does not quite cover it; Stat Moogle this year said I had something like 120,000 battles fought and about 750 parties and 250 alliances joined total since I made Scaevola in the spring of 2005.

I don't know why people insist on doing empyreans solo. Teaming up with another person or two makes the process so much less daunting. With 4 chars holding KIs you can finish Briareus in ~8 hours or less.

[scaevola]

I don't know why people insist on doing empyreans solo. Teaming up with another person or two makes the process so much less daunting. With 4 chars holding KIs you can finish Briareus in ~8 hours or less.

What friends I have made in the game I keep by not building expectations of reliance and support, either on them or by them. Playing with other people is a blast; calling upon them for assistance with the expectation that they're going to make your life easier, not so much. To associate with better players would require a greater commitment from me ("no Empyrean? Okay, level given-niche-job-that-nobody-really-likes-playing and get back to me; nothing personal") that may not be objectively unreasonable but still isn't worth the payoff because last I checked this was still FFXI.

Besides, I'd feel guilty forcing somebody to waste their time building me a weapon I don't actually want very much, unless I were paying them, which is probably what I'll end up doing for the remainder of whatever-the-fuck-this-weapon-ends-up-being.

EDIT: will probably end up staying 85, not 90, because I can't solo apademak (doubt I can even solo dhorme on a job with practical red options) and I have not yet run out of things to spend money on to the degree that I could justify paying somebody for 75 horns.

My best option, of course, would be to make a dualbox mule, but that just seems....I don't know. Odd? Questionable? Paying twice as much money to win a game in which I've long since decided I'm only competing with myself seems like it's going in to a Dark Place.

[Michelob]

What friends I have made in the game I keep by not building expectations of reliance and support, either on them or by them.

Besides, I'd feel guilty forcing somebody to waste their time building me a weapon I don't actually want very much, unless I were paying them, which is probably what I'll end up doing for the remainder of whatever-the-fuck-this-weapon-ends-up-being.

EDIT: will probably end up staying 85, not 90, because I can't solo apademak (doubt I can even solo dhorme on a job with practical red options) and I have not yet run out of things to spend money on to the degree that I could justify paying somebody for 75 horns.

I did all of my empyreans with a friend. One for me, one for him, repeat. Not only does it go faster (a lot faster when you both are 2boxing) but it makes it more fun seeing as you can BS with each other while you're at it. Some of the empyreans we made we have never used at all but what else were we supposed to do with that time? I don't see why you would feel guilty for asking someone to play the game with you, anyways.

[scaevola]

I was trying to be subtle about it (I expanded on it through edits) but the venn diagram of people I've really come to like in FFXI and people who are actually good at the game has a really, really small overlap that pretty much completely evaporated years ago. The people I talk to now are great folks, bless 'em, but most of them are happy to admit they only vaguely understand What the Fuck is Going On and aren't especially interested in the modern practice of leveling specific jobs for specific purposes (and really, who am I to judge?). Being followed around by a BST or melee RDM who is a really nice guy but constantly gets lost is downright charming the first two or three times, but eventually you just end up going to your Mog House and switching back to Dancer.

I might, as a general matter, be interested in playing with competent, knowledgable people who could carry on a conversation about something other than FFXI and would expect very little of me in terms of a concrete schedule, but again, despite my dashing good looks and rapier wit* I understand that at this point long-term players that can still pass Turing Tests have their circles of friends, are happy with them, and I respect that.


*which, incidentally, were enough to get me into a server-first-C'thun guild in WoW :D

[Weeks]

EDIT: will probably end up staying 85, not 90, because I can't solo apademak (doubt I can even solo dhorme on a job with practical red options) and I have not yet run out of things to spend money on to the degree that I could justify paying somebody for 75 horns.

My best option, of course, would be to make a dualbox mule, but that just seems....I don't know. Odd? Questionable? Paying twice as much money to win a game in which I've long since decided I'm only competing with myself seems like it's going in to a Dark Place.

You can solo Dhorme, who is ridiculously easy on an evasive job. Unfortunately, Apademak isn't really practical even if you do make yourself a dualbox mule. Fight turns stupid when he nukes himself a few times while your mule is too busy doing other things to Stun. Doable still, but enough of a headache that you'd rather team up with someone else.

[scaevola]

Is Dhorme doable on NIN/WAR? The popset is obnoxious enough that I wouldn't want to do it on NIN/DNC and lose procs, though I'd just come back on THF and brew a bunch of apademaks in addition to buying some horns if I were really dead fucking set on taking this little toy for a job I don't especially care about to 90.

[Genosync]

Is Dhorme doable on NIN/WAR? The popset is obnoxious enough that I wouldn't want to do it on NIN/DNC and lose procs, though I'd just come back on THF and brew a bunch of apademaks in addition to buying some horns if I were really dead fucking set on taking this little toy for a job I don't especially care about to 90.

Would be easier with a twobox; this game is 1000000x more entertaining with a 2box doing 1melee/1mage.

Easiest way really in the end to manage to do this is to shout group Dhorme for seals with yellow/red, then just brew the apademak KIs. Fastest possible solution except for shouting for the KIs themselves

[TSFFXI]

You can solo Dhorme, who is ridiculously easy on an evasive job.

Can you expand upon this? I'm told it uses chainspell. I believe I saw a video of a DNC soloing it, but it didn't look like red was proc'd. Apademak has been soloed by RDM, BLU, and (with more pertinence) NIN and it honestly didn't look so bad. I don't doubt that Genosync's method is the best, but I'm curious.

[Genosync]

Can you expand upon this? I'm told it uses chainspell. I believe I saw a video of a DNC soloing it, but it didn't look like red was proc'd. Apademak has been soloed by RDM, BLU, and (with more pertinence) NIN and it honestly didn't look so bad. I don't doubt that Genosync's method is the best, but I'm curious.

you can probably pull it off with good attention to stuns. will eventually chainspell at random; nothing exactly seems to trigger it. casts spells after it uses a TP move, burst typically AoEs. can use fulm unless you're attacking from behind, then you get plauge swipe onry.

[Weeks]

I've never seen it survive long enough to Chainspell duoing with my WHM mule. Dies in about 2 minutes and can't hit you for the world.

[machiko]

I think the design was intended, i really dont believe that the dev team is so out of touch with the playerbase, considering how abyssea was and I dont think that all of the Dev team went over to FFXIV, ergo the current design is INTENDED and working properly as they (dev team/producer) want it to be. This only indicates to me that they are pritty much done with this game.

This game is honestly done, every single thing they have done over or said over the last few years should tell you that. JP only mankes more sense now, there would be a riot if any western players were there when they announced "well, we had a good run but it's time to move on!", JP players will just accept it quietly and complain after.

It's sad but it's obvious why they are doing it and why they are delaying the announcement about it. I'm just glad I kicked the addiction to the game 6 months ago. Will still be sad to see it go down though.

I really do wonder how many players will move over to XIV as they think they will, they either know their players very well or they are in for a shock.

[NynJa]

Thats a pretty stupid assumption to make. A 2 year old would have greater business sense to shut something down that has been successful for 10 years (ok, either a 12 year old, or a 2 yr old inheriting the company a la batman) in place for something that has been a documented epic failure for the past 2 years.

[machiko]

I know it was a complete failure but they are putting everything into making it succeed, throwing money at it and putting almost everyone they have into working on it. They want XIV to succeed and it's obvious that a big part of that is XI is leeching players that would move over if they put it out of it's misery. XIV v2 being a success is about pride, to a JP company that is more important than profits XI brings in for 4-5 years.

They put a guy that failed completely back in charge of it (in JP culture this is a sign that XI doesn't matter to them), the content they have made has been horrible and they don't care that everyone hates it..they just make more of the same, all the "new" stuff they have posted is cheap rehashes, the roadmaps are laughable when they know they need to show cool content (but they still don't), they are canning things like Mog bonanza, they add things with names like "the last stand" and announcements the reps make very often seen to have a negative tone. What have they done over the last few years that shows you they have long term plans in this game?

I think they care more about the shame of XIV v2 failing than the profits XI bring them (and closing XI = guaranteed at least 50-100k box sales/subs of FFXIV anyway) and I think they will put a bullet in XI hoping most of the XI players will move over than see that happen (if for nothing else, good launch numbers). The press will love them and the FF brand will be saved with "FFXIV v2 brings in mass numbers of new players!" that they killed the previous MMO and all the lost sheep move over to the new game due to being without an MMO won't factor into the good publicity.

The writing is on the wall, they will either close it down completely or put it into official retirement with zero new content.

Unless you really do think 3-4 years subs for XI are more important than XIV v2 being a success on a FF brand title to a JP company and guaranteed that over half the XI players would buy and sub to FFXIV if they were starved of their MMO fix.

[Xantavia]

The writing is on the wall, they will either close it down completely or put it into official retirement with zero new content

Right now I'm hoping (but not trying to get my hopes up too much) that there is something in the works. They recently announced that they are working to make the partition bigger on the PS2 hard drive. Why would they be wasting time doing that if they were planning to pull the plug.

[Spira]

whats with people with the fallacious logic that XI and XIV have to be mutually exclusive to be successful?

Square Enix has numerous development and support teams. They have no need to put all their eggs into 1 basket. They have enough funding/staff to throw around at various projects.

you are really overgeneralizing the JP company pride > profit thing btw.
Square Enix is a public corporation. They answer to their investors/shareholders, who don't even have to be Japanese and definitely care for the profit.

if you really look at the writing on the wall, you will see that they are willing to continue to support the playerbase so long as they're there playing. if not, why bother with a 10 year anniversary event in Japan? and a 10th anniversary concert in the US aimed at FFXI players? These events are not free to hold and they clearly have the budget for it.
another key point i cannot stress enough. FFXI is still in profit. very much so. sure they may be Japanese and pride means everything to keep the reputation of the flagship title high, but they're also not stupid.

bottom line, i think you're really just justifying to yourself for quitting 6 months ago that it was going to go down eventually.
its like oh i just broke up with my girlfriend 6 months ago. it wasn't gonna last anyway, she had cancer... but i'll miss her >_>

[arus2001]

People are understandably frustrated by money FFXI generates not going into FFXI first. Even at an alleged 200k subs, that's more than enough to not be understaffed and actually churn out content at a decent pace. Instead? Yeah, they're starving XI. Funding other things is fine, but current SE treatment of XI is like Domino's cutting back on pizza making to sell tractor tires. Could that potentially make them more money someday? Maybe. Doesn't leave us any less confused about it, and it's not like SE's other ventures are all bottomless money pits, too.

[machiko]

whats with people with the fallacious logic that XI and XIV have to be mutually exclusive to be successful?

Square Enix has numerous development and support teams. They have no need to put all their eggs into 1 basket. They have enough funding/staff to throw around at various projects.

you are really overgeneralizing the JP company pride > profit thing btw.
Square Enix is a public corporation. They answer to their investors/shareholders, who don't even have to be Japanese and definitely care for the profit.

if you really look at the writing on the wall, you will see that they are willing to continue to support the playerbase so long as they're there playing. if not, why bother with a 10 year anniversary event in Japan? and a 10th anniversary concert in the US aimed at FFXI players? These events are not free to hold and they clearly have the budget for it.
another key point i cannot stress enough. FFXI is still in profit. very much so. sure they may be Japanese and pride means everything to keep the reputation of the flagship title high, but they're also not stupid.

bottom line, i think you're really just justifying to yourself for quitting 6 months ago that it was going to go down eventually.
its like oh i just broke up with my girlfriend 6 months ago. it wasn't gonna last anyway, she had cancer... but i'll miss her >_>

If they closed down XI you can guarantee around half of it's players would sub to XIV within a month, no doubt on that at all (that's at least 100-200k box sales and subscribers). MMO players are like addicts and XIV is the only thing that resembles XI in even a small way. You think the majority of interested possible XIV v2 players aren't the people that play XI right now? There aren't vast numbers of WoW players check back in on FFXIV, to most people XIV is just another failed and unimportant MMO (like AoC/Warhammer etc). XI is and always was direct competition for players with XIV, they thought they could attract offline FF fans/other MMO players but they were wrong.

The last few years of FFXI have not only been complete shit but they are offering no assurance that they plan to carry on with FFXI long term, the vanafest can be seen as the celebration of 10 years more than the continuation of the game.

What have they done in FFXI since removing the good leaders, staff and money to give any indication they won't close it down/retire it with no content and make that announcement at Vanafest? (even the shitty roadmaps are short-term) Compare how FFXI was during Abyssea when they thought they could run 2 MMOs at once to how they run FFXI now when it's obvious they care more about XIV v2 than pretty much anything else for the online dept.

[Kaisha]

If they closed down XI you can guarantee around half of it's players would sub to XIV within a month, no doubt on that at all

I think you're vastly overestimate how many XI players are on PCs, and how many of those have PCs that can even run current-XIV decent without committing suicide.

Anyways, I'd call people stupid if they played XI exclusively, and then hop onto XIV just because it has FF in the title. There are better options out there 'now'.