Colonization Thread

[Hashmalum]

My point is that maybe it's worth thinking about the kind of mindset you approach the content with. Usually the way to do things is to decide on doing X specific thing, then by god you go out and keep trying until you accomplish X no matter what it takes. You need 50 Briareus helms? You go grind Briareus as fast and efficiently as possible until you collapse. You need to do a magian trial? You go to the most efficient place with the most appropriate mobs and grind until you finish. This is usually the FFXI mindset. However maybe that is a less useful way to approach the SoA content?

I had a better time with the content when I started to let things come to *me* instead of focusing piecemeal on finishing each and every tiny goal as its own chore. The content in SoA is very much integrated together, for better or worse. I'm not sure myself how I feel about the expansion yet. I like it all right but I'm waiting to see what the first update has to offer and how colonization proceeds to make a firmer judgement. The criticism of reives is accurate and hopefully Square will manage to do something to make them better.

This sort of unfocused playstyle seems to be what SE was going for when they made FFXIV. It... didn't work out well for them. And here in FFXI, we have a player base that has been trained and shaped to the focused approach for a decade now. It's not just that we've gotten used to focusing in on our goals one at a time (although we have), it's that people who favored an unfocused over a focused approach were weeded out over the years as the game relentlessly failed to reward that approach. If you went for the unfocused approach, you were a sucker, and the other players would be happy to inform you of that if you couldn't figure it out yourself. It's way, way too late for them to be changing gears on us at this point.

Edit: My point was that if you are right, then they made a huge mistake at a fundamental level on this expansion.

[Hirronimus]

Not sure where to ask this or if we should start new thread on the topic, but is there a list or posts about possible augments for "Traditional Armor" with Inventor's Coalition?

Just traded my Thurandaut Gloves for HP+40 MP+40 Augment and Thurandaut Tights for HP+50 Augment.

P.S. Perhaps we can make a thread for this and include Skirmish weapons' augments

[Rocl]

It's a sort of ridiculous to make a thread for the Traditional Armor augments as those are static. The Skirmish Weapons seem to follow a more abjuration-augment style, yes.

That aside, this bro has made a thread http://www.bluegartr.com/threads/115...nd-Information

[Arthars]

Not sure where to ask this or if we should start new thread on the topic, but is there a list or posts about possible augments for "Traditional Armor" with Inventor's Coalition?

Just traded my Thurandaut Gloves for HP+40 MP+40 Augment and Thurandaut Tights for HP+50 Augment.

P.S. Perhaps we can make a thread for this and include Skirmish weapons' augments

those 3 sets r fixed augments....

edit: beaten!

[Hirronimus]

Oh. Well...

[Spira]

I think that accomplishing things in SoA requires a different mindset and a different style of playing than is used in the rest of FFXI. Last week what I did was I loaded up one of every Coalition assignment I could take (except for a few like the stupid quest to turn in 5 twith wings). Got some helm equip and just started roaming around the zones at my own leisure. I went out and delivered some supplies to a Bivuouac, spotted some logging points to use, noticed a group of people doing a reive and joined in, ran into a Lost Article, gathered 5 resources for the pioneers, joined a group of people for a lair rieve, and surveyed an ergon loci spot. After I was full of junk and hadn't many Coalition assignments left for those zones I took the waypoint back to town and sold a lot of shit to NPC and turned in all of the Imps.

My point is that maybe it's worth thinking about the kind of mindset you approach the content with. Usually the way to do things is to decide on doing X specific thing, then by god you go out and keep trying until you accomplish X no matter what it takes. You need 50 Briareus helms? You go grind Briareus as fast and efficiently as possible until you collapse. You need to do a magian trial? You go to the most efficient place with the most appropriate mobs and grind until you finish. This is usually the FFXI mindset. However maybe that is a less useful way to approach the SoA content?

I had a better time with the content when I started to let things come to *me* instead of focusing piecemeal on finishing each and every tiny goal as its own chore. The content in SoA is very much integrated together, for better or worse. I'm not sure myself how I feel about the expansion yet. I like it all right but I'm waiting to see what the first update has to offer and how colonization proceeds to make a firmer judgement. The criticism of reives is accurate and hopefully Square will manage to do something to make them better.

i actually agree about the idea of a different mindset for SoA, but feel that this has actually been the case for a bunch of older events as well. SoA is a very thoroughly integrated expansion. You can kind of think of it as a complete game within FFXI, whereas content from previous expansions tend to form building blocks that add to the whole game instead. Yet Abyssea comes to mind as an example of a self-contained system within FFXI. It too was highly integrated, and the good thing about both of them is that as long as you're doing something to progress in the expansion/add-on, you will find benefit from doing so elsewhere in the process.

When SoA released, i took time to wander around the zones to explore, talking to a bunch of random NPCs. found some quest for Delectable Orobon in the process, fished up a Delectable Orobon as well. completed quest without ever leaving the zone, got some key item that increases resistance to paresis. Also, found a few ergon loci, checked them and they appear recorded at the inventors place. These are sensible gameplay moves that draw people into the game to get them to do as much as they can in it, because it is inevitably rewarding to do.

Granted, some players don't need incentives to do this.. like the OCD people who collect all atma and completed all objectives in the 9 zones in Abyssea (including dominion ops and bastion ops), others will do nothing except whatever is necessary for them to get what they specifically need. In this sense you can look at SoA in two mindsets that would work.

1) Not setting out to specifically do 1 thing only is generally more rewarding
2) Setting out to do everything is better than doing 1 thing only.

whichever it is, its better for SE as the game engages players more, and it succeeds because it is actually capable of delivering an enjoyable experience while doing so, unlike XIV legacy. In turn, if you really wanted direction, there are things you can look toward doing, like specifically reives in order to reach Naakuals, or Missions (which are kinda non-existent for SoA now, but you get the idea that its a distinct path to choose).

I'm definitely enjoying SoA thus far. My only gripe is that colonization moves along rather slowly, and that i personally don't have much incentive to do reives because it fails to reward my jobs well at all. Reives are getting old rather quickly, so I think they should move towards making it even more lowmannable, at least in starter zones, since people have no reason to clear these for the purposes of exploration/progress.. and fix reive reward calculation

[Kainstryder]

Here it is:

Thanks, appreciate it. Interesting that there's only 8 ranks, figured there'd be 10 or something nicely rounded.

[Rocl]

In case it wasn't obvious: you need both the Morimar and Foret frontier stations built before being able to buy the Cirdas map.

[agerknux]

Not sure if this belongs in the Colonization thread or discussed anywhere, but I came across an unnamed Fire Elemental down in Rala Waterways. I tried magic aggroing, bringing mobs near it but nothing. Anyone might have a clue what this is?

Spoiler: show

http://s24.postimg.org/dekfi9pxx/img...408_233433.png

[Gwynplaine]

Possibly just a weird glitch. It happened in Al Zahbi for a long while random spirits appeared.

[Obsidian]

Not sure if this belongs in the Colonization thread or discussed anywhere, but I came across an unnamed Fire Elemental down in Rala Waterways. I tried magic aggroing, bringing mobs near it but nothing. Anyone might have a clue what this is?

Spoiler: show

http://s24.postimg.org/dekfi9pxx/img...408_233433.png

Saw the same thing when I was down there a few days ago. I also noticed that any mobs chasing you will teleport to you if you're running across certain bridges, much like if you clip outside the geometry in an area.

[Cambion]

I'm not sure if this is common knowledge yet, but I have a model for Bayld rewarded from Colonization Reives. Probably Lair Reive as well, but those are crappy for Bayld so this model applies to Colo much more.

Anyways, the system appears to be that the damage dealt to the Root determines the number of Bayld possible to get per assessment. You'll notice a spike in the Bayld rate after all the melee get to pop every single ability they have, and a dip when they wear off, or disengage. The amount of Bayld that an individual gets is based on some participation factor, which can be improved to cap based on damage dealt to root, damage taken, and HP cured.

I have not tested if DDing the monsters around Colonization Reives will let you cap your participation factor, but that seems unlikely based off of the Bayld per assessment dip any time I fight an add or adds.

Testing method: BRD supertanked, WHM curebombed, DRK zerged roots. Bayld per assessment was identical across all characters.

TL;DR, Bayld per Colonization (and possibly Lair) Reive = Damage dealt to root * participation factor, which can be capped with damage dealt, taken, or cures. Killing the surrounding monsters does not seem to be a good way to participate, neither does maintaining a simple song rotation.

I agree, Bayld Caps at Root Progression, with some sort of formula determining if you obtain that cap. If you exceed that cap, you'll see the bonus in EXP.
I've basically been looking at it as follows:

For Every 1% Damage the Roots take, you need to deal 1000 Damage. (I don't know what the equivalent is in curing/supporting)
If you meet this minimum you obtain the capped Bayld. If you Exceed it, you receive the capped Bayld and see increased EXP reward.
If you don't reach the cap, you'll see your Bayld and Exp 'match' at a percentage of the cap.
My guess is a direct percentage based on damage. (800 damage = 80% of the Capped Bayld/Exp)
(Made up numbers to display my current thoughts)

So basically, if your Exp is more than your Bayld, you need more people damaging the roots.
If your exp is equal to your Bayld, you're not keeping up with the root progression. (Too many people on the roots, not enough on the mobs)
Essentially I use this as a factor for myself. As long as my Exp>Bayld I'm fine. As soon as I see my Exp = Bayld, I know I'm no longer dealing enough damage within the time limit, and I personally move to the Mobs, so that I can easily deal the required amount of damage within each tally. You can keep track of this, by how much 'room for error' you have in Exp over Bayld. If my Exp is 800 and Bayld was 300, then clearly I'm ahead of the game, and should be fine. But if my Exp dips to about ~100 of my Bayld, then I preemptively move to Mobs to prevent myself from falling behind.

The numbers are just made up, to create an easy to follow image. For a more realistic example I'd have to run a parser, but if we assume that the Bayld per Reive is... 5,000?
And there are 3 Roots at 100% each. That for each 1% of the Roots done = 16.66 Bayld Cap. (A Parse of Total Damage to complete a root would be helpful)

A rough guestimate based on memory... (Post-Nerf: With no factual evidence or data)
25,000 Damage = 5,000 Bayld
Each root has ~100k Hp.
Every 5 Damage = 1 Bayld

For every 300,000 total root HP
25,000 damage needs to be dealt
So, for every 30,000 Damage done to the roots, each player needs to have individually dealt 2,500 damage in that same time frame.

On the assumption that the average DD (in Reive anyways) deals 50DPS to the roots,
I'd think that you need to average 4.2 DPS per person on the roots, to cap Bayld.
If 10 DD's are on the roots, you need to be doing 42 DPS
18 DD's on the roots and you need to be dealing 75.6 DPS to cap Bayld.
If you can't match that DPS number on the roots, then you should start engaging the mobs in order to maximize your DPS, to achieve the capped Bayld.

*Disclaimer
This is all based on guestimates, memory, no facts, no data, just based on my personal experience, with nothing but eyeball calculations, a pen and paper. =)

[Rocl]

In case it wasn't obvious: you need both the Morimar and Foret frontier stations built before being able to buy the Cirdas map.

Map of Reives in Foret de Hennetiel:

Spoiler: show

Each Lair Reive contains 1 Craklaw + 3 of whatever family I have listed. Except the Orobon one, for some reason that only had two Orobons.
Colonization Reives here are on both sides of the river, which is why I have the dots in the river itself.

Mucho bueno to Prothescar for his very helpful "how to navigate the river" map '~'

[Stan64]

I dunno if this have been stated but I'll write it again for those who missed it.

When you got the Reive KI you get a lot of messages. Those who say "Momentum score: Damage taken" are objectives, and when fulfilled you get a "Momentum bonus". For the damage taken you need to take damage for example.

I dunno if this gives you an increase in Bayld as well, but it adds another layer of play style where you have to be a bit active to get boons and not just stand there chucking your sword at the root.

[Obsidian]

Damage Taken ones are lame when soloing on PLD because I take next to no damage, and I'm pretty sure that one gives you Stoneskin anyway. I think the attack objective is the one that gives TP. I have no idea what's responsible for Ability Recast Reset.

[Kunimitsu]

Not sure if posted yet, but a group on Carby is fighting the Bee Naakual right now and is at about 20%

[Whiteknight]

Long and painfull fight, 18% now. "Strat" is : zerg, wipe, wait for weakened, zerg, repeat. One pld aegis is holding the mob really well. Some tp move ae doing 1.8-2k on my drg (with no prot/shell, no pdt gear on). It's pretty evasive, kinda liek lancer remorak, spamming blink. Col rate is at 25%, so still a srtong DT-, drakes unbuffed doing about 1k.

Spoiler: show

http://img546.imageshack.us/img546/8152/ryugu.png

Ryunohangon!

[cchristo]

I don't think people realize how easy 100k Bayld is going to be to get. From the DAT files we know each coalition has 8 personal ranks. I'm a deciple of the scout coalition. I can literally TP to the Foret frontier, walk two minutes to a survey spot, warp back and collect 1,500 Bayld. Thus, every single day i can easily snag 6,000 Bayld in 15 minutes. If I spent 45 minutes doing reives I could end the day with 10k Bayld. 10 days and 10 hours to get 100k Bayld is something a casual player could achieve...and I'm only on the third coalition rank!!! Hell, the next scout rank might give me 2k Bayld per task and so on and so on. 100k is easy if you master a coalition.

[Sechs]

Not sure if this belongs in the Colonization thread or discussed anywhere, but I came across an unnamed Fire Elemental down in Rala Waterways. I tried magic aggroing, bringing mobs near it but nothing. Anyone might have a clue what this is?

Spoiler: show

http://s24.postimg.org/dekfi9pxx/img...408_233433.png

Maybe it's just an NPC for pure aesthetics, like those fighting in some Abyssea areas?

[Whiteknight]

Ok, just beat the naakual Bee hnm. No drop, some jp friend told me they got "geamoancer" "magic".

Spoiler: show

http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/1700/realdrop.png

CHeckign what the KI is doing now.

Edit : Just checked with dimmian, the KI doesn't reducre the price to other temp KI. But just checked ffxi's update :" Also coming in guns a-blazin' is all-new battle content which takes aim at players who have completed existing Wildskeeper Reive and Skirmish content."
Imo, you'll need those KI to acces the super naakual fights, just like VW KI? I'l still talking to every npc around, mayeb that will trigger something.
T